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Epochs of History. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 
AND FIRST EMPIRE. 



WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS. 



EPOCHS SELECTED. 



THE ERA OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION. By F. Seebohm, 
Author of ' The Oxford Reformers/ with an appendix by Prof Geo. 
P. Fisher, of Yale College. — Now ready. 

THE CRUSADES. By Rev. G. W. Cox, M.A.; Author of the 
' History of Greece.' — Noiv ready. 

THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR, 1618-1648. By Samuel Rawson Gar- 
diner.- NoTV ready. 

THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK; with the CONQUEST 
and LOSS of FRANCE. By James Gaikdner of the Public Record 
Ofhce. — NoTv ready. 

THE BEGINNING OFTHE^IIDDLE AGES; CHARLES the GREAT 

and ALFRED ; the HISTORY of ENGLAND in its connexion 
with that of EUROPE in the NINTH CENTURY. By the Very 
Rev. R. W. Church, M. A., Dean of St. Paul's. 

THE NOKMAN KINGS AND THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. By the Rev. 
A. H. Johnson, Mj^ 

THE EARLY PLANTAGENETS and their relation to the HISTORY 
of EUROPE ; the foundation and growth of CONSTITUTIONAL 
GOVERNMENT. By the Rev. William Stubbs, M.A., &c, Regius 
Professor of Modern History in the University of Oxford, 

EDWARD 111. By the Rev. W. Warburton, M.A. 

THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. By the Rev. M. Creighton, M.A. 

THE STUARTS AND THE PURITAN REVOLUTION. By J. Langton 

Sanford, Author of * Studies and Illustrations of the Great Rebellion.' 

THE FALL OF THE STUARTS; and WESTERN EUROPE from 
1678 to 2697. By the Rev. Ed'^aro Hale, M.A., Assistant-Master 
at Eton. 

THE AGE OF ANNE. By Edward E. Morris, M.A. , Editor of the 
Series. 

FREDERICK THE GREAT and the SEVEN YEARS' WAR. By F. 

W. Longman, of Balliol College, Oxford. 



EACH I VOL. i6M0., CLOTH, UNIFORM. PRICE, ^I.OO. 



New York : SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. 



THE 



FRENCH REVOLUTION 

AND FIRST EMPIRE: 

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

BY 
WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS, 

SOMETIME SCHOLAR OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. 



WITH AN APPENDIX UPON THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT AND A 
COURSE OF STUDY BY 

HON. ANDREW Dr'^WHITE, LL. D. 

PRESIDENT OF COBNSLL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y. 



NEW YORK 
SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO. 






GRANT, FAIRES & BODGERS, 

ELECTROTYPERS AND PRINTERS, 

$2 & 54 N. SIXTH ST., PHILADELPHIA. 



By Traaiaftf 



HENRY REEVE, ESQ., D.C.L. 

AS A MARK OF THE REGARD AND ESTEEM OF 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



It is unnecessary to say that, in an epitome of 
this kind, innumerable details must be altogether 
left out, and that a small space only can be allotted 
to even important occurrences which would be set 
forth at length in a complete narrative. Nor has it 
been possible for me — my object being to describe 
the principal facts of the French Revolution and 
First Empire — to comment largely on the institu- 
tions of old France, or to show fully how they con- 
tributed to the events that followed 1789. An 
abridgement cannot be a real History; and, apart 
from defects peculiar to it, I am conscious that this 
volume must at best be an imperfect miniature of the 
grand drama of human action and life which it en- 
deavors to delineate. Still I am not without hope 
that I have represented, in something like exact out- 
line, the great features of that period of trouble and 
war through which France passed from 1789 tg 

vii 



viii Preface. 

1815 j and I trust I have placed events in their true 
proportions, and that the opinions I have expressed 
are correct and moderate. The present time, it 
must be allowed, is favorable for a publication of 
this kind, even though it purports to be only a 
sketch. French and English literature has of late 
years teemed with documents of the greatest value 
on the Revolution and Napoleon I., and I have care- 
fully studied most of these sources of information. 
The events, too, of the war of 1870 bring again be- 
fore our eyes what the Emperor achieved in the field, 
though victory has shifted from the standards of one 
race to those of another ; the national defence of 
France in 1871 reflects light on that of 1793 ; and in 
the crimes and madness of the lately suppressed Com- 
mune of Paris, we see an image of the Reign of Ter- 
ror. 

Dublin: February i, 1874. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

STATE OF FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 

PAGE 

General character and results of the French Revolu- 
tion . . . . . . .1 

It exhibited vividly the peculiar features of the French 
national character . . . . . 2 

The Monarchy of France before the Revolution ; abuses 
in the system of government . . . -4 

The Church and the Nobility. Why these Orders had 
become generally disliked . . . .6 

The power of the ruling orders was divided and de- 
cayed, and consequently weak . . .8 

Dissensions between the Crown, the Church, and the 
Nobles, and discredit of all authority . . 9 

State of the Commons of France. The middle classes ; 
how they were cut off from the People, and the results 11 

Condition of the Peasantry , . . .13 

Of the population of the towns . . . .14 

Destructive and sceptical tone of contemporary French 
Literature . . . . . • 14 

The progress of evil continued down to the Revolution 15 

Brilliant anticipations of the future in France . . 17 

CHAPTER n. 

THE STATES-GENERAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 
1789 Meeting of the States-General . . . -19 

The Commons declare themselves the National Assem- 
bly ... . . . . .20 

The oath of the Tennis Court, June 20 . . .22 

ix 



X Contents. 

PAGE 
1789 Dismission of Necker, and formation of a reactionary 

Ministry . . . . . .24 

Rising in Paris . . . . . .24 

Mutiny of the French Guards and insubordination in 
the Army . . . . •. .25 

The Commune, the National Guard . . .26 

Siege and storming of the Bastille, July 14, 1789 . 28 

Beginning of the emigration of the Nobles . . 29 

Recall of Necker . . . . .29 

The King sanctions what had been done in Paris . 29 

The Tricolor Flag . . , . .30 

Risings in the Provinces . . . • 30 

Legislative measures of the Assembly . . • 31 

Sudden abolition of the feudal burdens, August 4, 1789 32 
October 5 and 6, 1789 . . . . -33 

The King and Royal Family taken to Paris from Ver- 
sailles . . . . . . '35 

Growing power of the rabble of Paris . . .35 

CHAPTER III. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790^1. 

Character of the period from the autumn of 1789 to 

the summer of 1791 . , . . • 3^ 

The National Assembly begins to frame the Constitution 38 
Useful reforms . . . . . '38 

Wild and precipitate innovations . . '39 

The Rights of Man . . . . -39 

Confiscation of Church and corporate property. Abo- 
lition of tithes . . . . . -39 

Equality . . . . . . .39 

Provinces transformed into Departments . . 39 

Character of the new Constitution ; its glaring defects 40 
Administrative measures . . ' . . .41 

Assignats . . . . . .42 

False system of taxation . , . .42 

Undue favor shown to Paris . . , .42 



Contents. 



XI 



PAGE 

1790 The feast of the Federation, July 14, 1790. Enthusiasm 

in Europe . . . . . '43 

Evil consequences of innovation ; signs of disorder and 

anarchy . , . . . '44 

The Jacobin and other clubs . . . -45 

Weakness of Conservative elements in the Assembly . 46 

Attempts of Mirabeau to check the disorganization of 

the State . . . . . .48 

His death . . . . . "49 

Threatening attitude of Foreign Powers . . 49 

Dangerous projects of the King and Queen , . 49 

The flight to Varennes, June 20, 1791 . . • 50 

Consequences of this event . . . . -Si 



y 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 

1791 Character of the period from the summer of 1791 to 

Aiigust 10, 1792 . . . . '54 

Deceptive calm. Meeting of the new Legislative As- 
sembly . . . . . . .55 

Character of this Body . . . . > SS 

The Gironde . . . . . . 56 

Dissensions between the King and the Assembly . 56 

Disorders in the Provinces . . . .57 

Religious and social troubles . . . .57 

Massacre at Avignon (Oct. 16 — 20, 1791) . -57 

Louis directly opposes the Assembly . . .58 

Nov. 1791 . . . ^ .' . 58 

Indignation of the Assembly . . . -59 

Attitude of the Commune of Paris. The Clubs and 
demagogues . . . . . -59 

Menaces of Foreign Powers . . . .60 

Declaration of Pilnitz, August, 1791 . . .60 

Projects of King and Queen . . , .61 

Divisions in the Assembly . . . .61 

It declares war against Austria. Prussia joins Austria 61 



xii Contents. 

^791 PAGE 

French failures in Belgium.' April, May, 1792 . 61 

Indignation in France . . . . .61 

Insensate conduct of Louis . . . .62 

1792 He resists the decrees of the Assembly, and dismisses 

the Gironde ministry and Dumouriez . . -63 

Outbreak of June 20, 1792 . . . -63 

1792 Encouraged by the popular leaders in the Assembly 

and by the Commune of Paris . . .64 

Reaction in favor of Louis . . . '65 

New efforts of the Demagogues and the Commune . 66 
Proclamation of Brunswick . . . .67 

Invasion of France by the Prussians and Austrians, 
July and August, 1792 . . . .67 

The Assembly paralyzed ; power passes to the Dema- 
gogues . . . . . .68 

Preparations for a rising. Danton . . .68 

Paris on the night of August 9, 1792 . - . .69 

Attitude of the King and the Court ... • 70 

August 10, 1792 . . . . . .70 

The armed populace at the Tuileries . . .71 

The King and Royal Family take refuge in the Assem- 
bly . . . . . . . .72 

The Tuileries attacked and pillaged. Massacre of the 
Swiss . . . . . . -72 

Reflections on the rising of August 10 . . '73 

CHAPTER V. 

.THE CONVENTION, TO THE FALL OF THE MODERATES, 
Effects of August 10 . . . . '75 

The Convention summoned . . . . '75 

The King and Royal Family imprisoned in the Tem- 
ple , . . . • . .75 
Violent measures of the Commune of Paris . . 76 
Lafayette throws up his command ; advance of the 

German armies to Verdun . . . '17 

Massacre of September . . . . > 11 

September 2 to 6, 1792 . . . . .78 



Contents. xiii 

PAGE 

1792 Frightful scenes in Paris . . . .78 
The Assembly indignant at the massacre . . 79 
Battle of Valmy. Its great results ; retreat of the Prus- 
sians and Austrians . . . . .80 

Meeting of the Convention, September 22, 1792 , 80 

Parties in it . . . . . .81 

France declared a Republic, September 22, 1792 . 8i 
Offer of liberty to foreign nations, November 19 . 81 
Dissension renewed between the Moderates and Jaco- 
bins . . . . . . .82 

Trial of Louis XVI. December 11, 1792 . . 82 

Sentence of death pronounced by a majority of one . 83 

Execution of Louis XVL January 21, 1793 . . 84 

1793 Reflections on this event . . . .86 
Character and conduct of the King . . .86 
Coalition of Europe against France . . .87 
Battle of Jemmapes and early successes of the French, 

November — December 1792, January-February 1793 87 
Fierce struggle of parties in France . . ,90 

The Gironde denounced by the Jacobins and Dema- 
gogues . . . . . 90 
Distress and social disorders . . . '91 
Advance of the Coalition . . . -91 
Battle of Neerwinden, March 18, 1793 . . .92 
Flight of Dumouriez. He throws up his command ' . 92 
Increasing power of the Jacobins. Danton. His energy 92 
Formation of the Committee of Public Safety, April 6, 

1793 . . . . • • .93 

Violent measures proposed by Danton . . -93 

And decreed by Convention . . * . '93 

Propositions of the Commune of Paris . . 94 

The payty of violence generally prevails . . 94 

The Gironde and Moderates denounce extreme mea- 
sures . . . . . . '94 

The Commission of Twelve . . . -95 

The forces of Anarchy become supreme . . 95 

Danton tries in vain to reconcile the contending parties 95 



xiv Contents. 

PAGE 

1793 Death-struggle between the Moderates and Jacobins . 95 

Rising of May 31 and June 2, 1793 . . .96 

Fall of the Moderates . . . . .96 

Reflections on this event . . . • 97 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE REIGN OF TERROR. WAR. FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. • 
1793 Triumph of the party of violence in the Convention . 97 
Risings against in the Provinces. Civil war . . 98 

Beginning of the war of La Vendee . . ,98 

Energetic measures of Danton and the leaders in power 99 
The levee en masse . . . . * 99 

The Constitution of 1793 .... 100 

The maximum. The Revolutionary Tribunal . 100 

The risings in part of France quelled . . . 100 

Feebleness of the Coalition .... loi 

Waste of time, in action and dissensions . . 101 

Sept. 8, 1793 ...... 102 

The Republic successful at home and abroad . 102 

Camot. Hoche ..... 102 

Battle of Wattignies, October 16, 1793 . . 103 

Fall of Lyons, October 9, 1793, . . . 104 

Great defeat of the Vendeans at Savenay, December 

23, 1793 . . . . . .104 

Siege and fall of Toulon, December 19, 1793 . . 104 

First appearance on the scene of Napoleon Bonaparte. 105 
The Reign of Terror ..... 105 

The Convention, a mere instrument of the Jacobin 

leaders ...... 106 

The Committee of Public Safety all powerful . . 106 

Its tyranny and terrible expedients . . . 106 

Wild social changes . . . . . 107 

Atheism declared truth by the Commune of Paris . 107 
Appearance of Paris during the Reign of Terror . 107 

The levies hurried to the frontier . . . 108 

Appearance of the Convention . . . .108 

Dissolution of society and of morality . , log 



Contents. 



XV 



Cruelty and suspicions of populace 

General licentiousness ..... 

The Goddess of Reason at Notre-Dame 

Scenes in the prisons .... 

The Revolutionary Tribunal and its work 

Trial and execution of Marie Antoinette, October 14- 
16, 1793 

Her character and conduct 

Divisions among the Jacobin rulers 

Three factions form themselves 

Growing ascendency of Robespierre 

He becomes supreme in the State 

Destruction of Hebert and the leaders of the Com- 
mune, of Danton and his followers, March 24, April 
3, 1794 

Character of Danton . . 

Dictatorship of Robespierre 

His measures to secure his power 

The worship of the Supreme . 

Terror. at its height . . 

Frightful state of Paris . 

Massacres in the Provinces 

The Republic obtains fresh successes in the campaign 
of 1794 

English naval victories of June i 

The Allies defeated on all other points of the theatre 

Battle of Fleurus, June 26, 1794 

Reaction against the Reign of Terror 

Fall of Robespierre, July 27, 1794 

Execution of Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon and 
others, July 28, 1794 

Reflections on this event 

The Terrorists were not able men 

Notwithstanding the efforts of the French, the Allies 
could have put down the Revolution 



PAGE 

no 



no 

IIO 

III 
112 

113 
"5 
"S 
"5 
116 
117 



117 
117 
118 
118 
118 
118 
119 
119 

121 
121 
121 
121 
122' 
122 

123 
123 
124 

125 



XVI 



Contents, 



CHAPTER VII. 

THERMIDOR. FRENCH CONQUESTS. 

1794 Reaction of Thermidor 
The prisons opened 
Punishment of several of the Terrorists 
Abolition of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and of the 

maximum ..... 
The forcing of the value of assignats discontinued 
The populace of Paris kept down. The Jacobin Club 

suppressed 
Violence of the Reaction 
Revolution in manners 
The Jeunesse Doree 
Renewed troubles 
Scarcity and distress 
The Jacobin party tries to rally 

1 795 Outbreaks of 12th Germinal (April i) 
And of ist Prairial (May) 1795 
Put down and suppressed 
The power of Jacobinism finally broken 
Measures of the Government against the Royalists 
Weakness of the State. Tendency to the rule of the 

sword 

Great successes of French against the Allies 
Conquest of Belgium and Holland, September 1794 

January 1795 
Failure of English descent from Quiberon Bay, July 

15—20, 1795 . 
The Coalition dissolved. Prussia and Spain make 

peace, April, June 1795 
Causes of this astonishing success of the Republic 
Continuing weakness of the Republic at home 
Extreme distress of the great cities 
Exhaustion of the Revolutionary spirit 
Desire for repose and a settled government. Reaction 

towards Monarchy . . . . . 



PAGE 
126 

126 

126 



137 



Contents. xvii 

PAGE 

1795 Constitution of the year III .... 138 
The Constitution generally well received . • I39 
Opposition to the re-election of two-thirds of the Con- 
vention . . . ~ . . . 139 

Rising of the reactionary sections of Paris, 13th Vende- 

miaire (October 4, 1795), put down by Bonaparte . 140 

The authority of the Convention restored . ,140 

The military power becomes stronger . . . 141 

Reflections on the course of the Revolution after Ther- 

midor ....... 141 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DIRECTORY. BONAPARTE. 

Character of this period . . . .142 

State of the Republic after Vendemiaire . . 143 

Policy of the Directory . . . . 144 

National Bankruptcy virtually declared . . 144 

1796 Preparations for the campaign of 1796 . . 145 
The campaign of Italy .... 146 

Bonaparte invades Piedmont from the seaboard . 146 

April 28, 1794 . . . . . . 146 

May 9 — 30, 1796 . . . * . 146 

He marches to the Adige. Siege of Mantua . . 146 
The Austrians send an army to raise the siege of Mari- 

tua and to crush Bonaparte .... 147 

He defeats Wurmser in a series of engagements . 147 

August 3— 6, September I — 13,1796 . . . 147 

The Austrians send Alvinzi with si Aew army . . 148 

He is defeated at Areola, November 14 — 17, 1796 . 148 

1797 Decisive victory of Bonaparte at Rivoli, January 14, 

1797 . . . . . . .148 

Reflections on the campaign. Great skill of Bonaparte 148 
Character of his strategy .... 149 

State craft of Bonaparte . . . . .150 

Campaign of 1796 in Germany. Defeats of the French 150 
The Archduke Charles ..... 150 

A 



xviii Contents. 

PAGE 

1797 Ability displayed by him . 150 
Internal state of the Republic ; revival of factions . 152 
Royalist and reactionary schemes . . . 152 
Coup d'etat of the i8th Fructidor (September 4, 1797) 153 
Conclusion of the campaign of Italy . . . 153 
Conciliatory policy of Bonaparte ; his anti^revolution- 

ary views .,.,.. 154 
He marches on Vienna from Italy . . '154 

Treaty of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797 . . 155 

Gains of France . . . . . 155 

Sacrifice of Venice ..... 155 

Reflections on the conduct of Bonaparte . , 156 

Enthusiasm in France at his successes . . . 156 

Admiration felt for him in Europe . . . 156 

He returns to France, and is received with acclamation 157 

December, 1797 ..... 157 

CHAPTER IX. 

EGYPT AND THE 18TH BRUMAIRE. 

1798 The Directory jealous of Bonaparte . . . 158 
They engage him to attempt a descent on England . 159 
He proposes to invade Egypt .... 159 
Expedition to Egypt . . . . .159 
Congress of Rastadt , . . ' . . 160 
Renewal of causes of discord in Europe . . 160 
Formation of the Ligurian, Helvetian, and Roman 

Republics . . . . . .160 

Bonaparte lands in Egypt July j, 1798 . . 161 

Battle of the Nile, August i, 1798, and destruction of 

the French fleet ..... 161 

Renewal of the war in Europe .... 162 

1799 Murder of the French plenipotentiaries at Rastadt, 

April 28, 1799 . . . . . 162 

The Conscription . . . . . 162 

Character of the campaign of 1799 . . . 163 

Defeats of the French ..... 163 

Formation of the Parthenopaean Republic . . 163 



Contents. xix 

PAGE 

1798 Battle of Stochach, March 25, 1799 . . . 163 
Battles of the Trebbia and Novi, June 17, 18, and 19, 

and August 15, 1799 . . . . . 164 

The French driven from Italy . . . .164 

Failure of English descent on Holland . . 164 

Battle of Zurich, September 25 — 28, 1789 . . 164 

It saves France from invasion .... 165 
Lamentable internal state of the Republic . . 165 

Strife of factions ..... 165 

The reverses of 1799 cause all parties to combine 

against the Directory . . . . .166 

Weakness and ruin of the State . . . 166 

Desire for a strong Government . . .166 

Sieyes ,,..... 166 
Fortunes of Bonaparte in Egypt . . . 167 

He fails at Acre, March to May, 1799 . . 167 

On hearing the news of the state of France, he leaves 

Egypt . . . . . .168 

Enthusiasm with which he is received on his way to 

and in Paris ...... 168 

He at once becomes the real centre of power . . 168 

He prepares a cowp d'Uat to change the Government 169 

1799 The i8th Brumaire (November 9), 1799 ^ . 169 
• Scene in Assembly at St. Cloud . . . 170 

Formation of a provisional government. Bonaparte 
First Consul . . . . . . 170 

Character of the Revolution of i8th Brumaire . .170 

Reflections on the conduct of Bonaparte, and on the 
march of events . . . . .170 

The coup d'etat was not a crime . . . 171 

CHAPTER X. 

MARENGO. LUNEVILLE. AMIENS. 

1800 Wise and healing policy of the First Consul . . 172 
Financial reforms . . . . .172 
Fortunate position of Bonaparte as a mediator between 

factions . . " . . . . 174 



XX 



Contents. 



1800 



1801 



1802 



PAGE 

Laws against clergy and emigres repealed or mitigated 174 

Pacification of La Vendee . . . • I75 

Rapid recovery of France .... 175 

Constitution of the year VIIL . . • , 175 

The institutions founded by it . . . 176 

Objects of Sieyes ..... 176 

Bonaparte First Consul for ten years . . . 176 
His Despotism is established, surrounded by merely 

nominal restraints ..... 177 

Reorganization of the French armies . . . 177 

Plans of the First Consul .... 177 

The campaign of 1800 ...... 178 

Operations of Melas in Italy, and of Moreau in Bavaria 178 



The First Consul crosses the Alps May 16-19, 

The French army enters Milan, June 2 

Melas falls back 

Battle of Marengo, June 14, 1800 

The French recover Italy 

Campaign in Germany . 

Advance of Moreau. Ability of Kray 

Battle of Hohenlinden, December 3, 1800 

Treaty of Luneville, February 9, 1801 

Great advantages gained by France 

Dictatorial tone of Bonaparte . 

Treaty of Amiens, March 27, 1802 

Great results obtained by the First Consul 



1800 



179 
179 
180 
180 
181 
181 
181 
182 
182 
182 
183 
184 
184 



CHAPTER XL 



THE CONSULATE. RENEWAL OF WAR. 

Internal Government of the First Consul . . 185 

The time favorable for reconstructing society in France 186 
Reforms in the State . . ... .187 



The Judicial system 
The Code . 

Centralization of local powers 
Prefects and sub-prefects 



187 
188 
188 
189 



Contents, xxi 

PAGE 

1802 The Concordat . . . , . .189 
Its effects . . . . , . 191 
Public Instruction ..... 191 
General results of these reforms . . . 191 
Changes in the army . . . , .191 
Creation of a new aristocracy . . . . 192 
The Legion of Honor. Restoration of Titles . 192 
Bonaparte made Consul for life . . . 192 
Modification, in a despotic sense, of the Constitution 

of the year VIII. ..... 193 

Partial resemblance of the new Government to that of 

the Monarchy . . . . • I93 

Ifs evils ....... 193 

Its merits ...... 193 

Wise Administration of the First Consul . . 194 

He encourages the movement towards Monarchy . 194 

Change of manners in France .... 19S 

Foreign Policy of the First Consul . . . 196 

Its craft and ambition ..... 196 

French intervention in Germany . . . 197 

1803 Great extension of French power and influence . 197 
Disputes with England. March to May, 1803 . 198 
Renewal of war with England, May 18, 1803 . 198 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE EMPIRE TO TILSIT. 

The First Consul plans a descent on England . 199 

The flotilla and camp of Boulogne . . . 200 
Project of covering the descent by a large fleet in the 

Channel ...... 200 

Conspiracy of the tmigrts against the First Consul . 201 

1804 Execution of the Duke of Enghien, March 21, 1804 . 202 
This event hastens the movement in favor of Monarchy 203 
The First Consul proclaimed Emperor of the French, 

May 18, 1804 . . . . . 203 

Coronation of Napoleon, December 2, 1804 . . 204 

1S05 New coalition against France .... 205 



xxii Contents. 

PAGE 
1805 Plan of the attack of the Allies . . . 206 

Campaign of 1805 ..... 206 

Napoleon quits Boulogne, and surrounds and captures 

an Austrian army at Ulm, October 19, 1805 . 206 

Battle of Trafalgar and destruction of the French and 

Spanish fleets, October 21, 1805 . . . 207 

The project of the descent might have succeeded . 208 
Napoleon marches on Vienna .... 209 

The Grand Army . . . . . 209 

Vienna occupied, November 13, 1805 . . . 209 

Battle of Austerlitz, December 2, 1805. Ruin of the 
allied army . . . . . . 210 

Peace of Presburg, December 15, 1805 . . 210 

Changes effected by it . . . . .211 

Austria ceases to be Head of the German Empire . 211 
The Confederation of the Rhine . ^ . .211 

Isolation of Prussia . . . . .211 

Conduct of that power . . . . .211 

It declares war against France . . . .212 

Campaign of 1806 ..... 212 

Battles of Jena and Auerstadt, October 14, 1806 . 212 

1807 Ruin of the Prussian army and Monarchy . . 212 

Napoleon marches against the Russians . . 213 

Winter campaign in Poland . . ... 213 

Campaign of 1807 ..... 213 

Indecisive battle of Eylau, February 8, 1807 . . 214 

Peril of Napoleon ..... 214 

Reorganization of the Grand Army . . . 214 

Decisive victory of the French at Friedland, June 14, 
1807 . . . . . . ,214 

Characteristics of these campaigns . . . 215 

Changes in the art of war . . . .215 

Meeting of Alexander and Napoleon on the Niemen, 
June 25, 1807 ..... 215 

Treaty of Tilsit, July 7 and 9, 1807 . . . 216 

Alliance between France and Russia, and dismember- 
ment of Prussia ..... 216 



Contents. xxiii 

. PAGE 

1807 Objects of Napoleon in making the treaty . . 216 

His power at its height . . . ... 217 

Extent of the French Empire .... 217 

Vassal kingdoms ..... 217 

Allied and subject States .... 218 

The Empire promoted civilization in some respects . 218 

Prosperity of France ..... 218 

Public works of Napoleon . . . .219 

Character of his Government .... 219 

Elements of weakness and decay in the Empire . 220 
Indignation of conquered nations . . . 220 
Tendency of Germany to unite through common suf- 
fering ....... 220 

Jealousy of Russia ..... 221 

Decline of the Grand Army in strength . . 221 

The resources of France unduly strained . . 221 

Moral evils of the rule of Napoleon , . . 222 

Insecurity of his power, which depended mainly on 

himself . . . . . . 223 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EMPIRE TO 1813. 

Retrospect of the policy of Napoleon , . . 224 
It changes for the worse after Tilsit . . . 225 
The Continental system, 1807-8 . . . 226 
Its mischievous effects upon the Empire . . 227 
It urges Napoleon to make conquests . . . 227 
Project of invading Spain and Portugal . . 228 
Napoleon dethrones the House of Braganza, Novem- 
ber, December, 1807 ..... 228 
The Royal Family of Spain enticed to Bayonne, and 

induced to abdicate the throne, May, 1808 . . 228 

General rising in Spain, May, June, 1808 . . 229 

Capitulation of Baylen, July 19, 20, 1808 . . 229 

First appearance of Sir A. Wellesley on the scene. 

Convention of Cintra, August 30, 1808 . 229 



xxiv Contents, 

PAGE 
1808 Great reverses of the French .... 229 

Napoleon invades Spain and enters Madrid, December 

2, 1808 . . . . . . 230 

He leaves the Peninsula at the news that Austria was 

arming . . . . . .230 

Campaign of 1809 in Germany . . . 230 

Defeat of the Archduke Charles in Bavaria, April 18, 

22, 1809 ...... 230 

Reverse of Napoleon on the Danube at Aspem, May 

21, 22, 1809 ...... 231 

Battle of Wagram and victory of French, July 6, 1809 231 
Treaty of Vienna, October 14, 1809 . . . 231 

1 8 10 Napoleon divorces Josephine and marries the Arch- 

duchess Maria Louisa, March 11, 18 10 . . 232 

Successes of Sir Arthur Wellesley in 1809, in Portugal 

and Spain ...... 232 

His profound insight and military skill . . 232 

Memorable campaign of Torres Vedras. and complete 

defeat of the French, June, 1810, May, 1811 . 233 

Great results of this campaign, and its influence on 

Europe . . . . . , 233 

Agitation in Germany and Holland . . . 234 

18 1 1 Murmurs in France . . * . . . 234 
Birth of a son to Napoleon, March 20, 1811 . . 235 
Jealousy of the Czar, and disputes with Russia . 235 
Napoleon prepares to invade Russia, November, 1811, 

May, 1812 . . . . . . 235 

Campaign of 1 8 12 ..... 236 

The Grand Army crosses the Niemen, June 24, 18 12 , 236 

Retreat of the Russians .... 236 

Political mistake of Napoleon in not restoring Poland 236 

He pursues the Russians .... 237 

Difficulties of the Grand Army . . . 237 

Precautions taken by Napoleon . . . 237 

He marches into the interior of Russia . . 238 

Battle of Borodino, September 7, 1812 . . 238 

The Grand Army enters Moscow, September 15, 1812 238 



Contents. xxv 

PAGE 

1811 The Russian Governor of Moscow sets fire to the city 238 
Napoleon delays in the hope of peace . . .238 
Beginning of the retreat from Moscow, October 19, 

1812 . . ... . .239 

Horrors of the retreat . . . • • 239 
Imminent peril of Napoleon and the remains of the 

army ....••• 239 

Passage of the Beresina, November 25-28, 1812 . 239 

Napoleon leaves the army for France, December 5, 1812 240 

Destruction of the Grand Army . . . 240 

Reflections on this catastrophe . . . • 240 

Causes of the ruin of the French . . . 240 

CHAPTER XIV. 

FALL OF NAPOLEON. 

Return of Napoleon to Paris .... 241 

Conspiracy of Malet ..... 242 

Defection of York, December 30, 1812 . . 242 

Rising of Germany, January-March, 1813 . . 242 
1813 Retreat of the French, February-March, 1813. Energy 

of Napoleon ...... 243 

His immense preparations to repair his fortunes . 243 

Bad condition of the French levies . . . 243 

Campaign of 1813 ..... 244 

Battle of Liitzen, May 2, 1813 . . . • 244 

Battle of Bautzen, May 20-21, 1813 . . . 244 

Success of Napoleon . . . . • 244 

Armistice of Pleistwitz, June 4, 1813 . . • 245 
Austria proposes terms to Napoleon which he unwisely 

rejects . . . . • • • 245 
The successes of Wellington in Spain decide Austria 

to join the Coalition ..... 246 

Battle of Vittoria, June 21, 1813 . . • 246 

The French driven from Spain ... . 246 

Europe in arms against Napoleon . . . 246 

His views and objects in the contest' . . . 246 



XXVI 



Contents. 



1813 Plan of the Allies .... 
Battle of Dresden, August 27, 1813 

Battle of Culm, August 30, 1813 

Battles on the Katzbach, at Grossbeeren, and at Denne 

witz, August 23 to September 5, 1813 
Great battles of Leipsic, October 16 and 18, 1813 
The French driven to the Rhine 
Defeats of the French in Italy. Wellington invades 

France ..... 

Revolt of the Allied and subject states 
Desperate condition of the Empire 
Napoleon thinks only of a death-struggle 
His preparations .... 

The Allies invade France, December 20-26 
The military situation of Napoleon seems hopeless 
Prostration of France .... 
Campaign of 1814 
Battles of Brienne and La Rothiere, January 29 and 

February i, 1814 .... 
Napoleon interposes between the Allies 
Battles of Champaubert, Montmirail, Vauchamps, and 

Nangis, February 10- 18, 1814 
Astonishing success of Napoleon 
Success of the Allies on other parts of the theatre 
Fresh forces raised against Napoleon . 
Battle of Laon, March 9 and 10, 1814 . 

1 8 14 Napoleon falls back on Lorraine to rally his garrisons 

and strike the rear of the Allies 
The Allies march on Paris, March 25, 18 14 
State of opinion in the capital . 
Capitulation of Paris, March 30, 1814 . 
Napoleon dethroned. The Bourbons restored 
Napoleon hastily retraces his steps 
He abdicates April 4, 1814 . . . 

Character of Napoleon .... 
Reflections on his fall .... 



PAGE 

247 
247 
248 

248 

249 
249 

249 
250 
250 
251 
251 
251 
■ 252 
252 
252 

252 
253 

253 
253 
254 
254 
254 

255 

255- 

256 

256 

256 

257 

257 

258 

259 



Contents. xxvii 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE HUNDRED DAYS AND WATERLOO. 

PAGE 

1814 Peace of Paris, May 30, 1814 .... 261 

Congress of Vienna, September, 1814, March, 1815 . 261 

Unpopularity of the Government of Louis XVIII. . 261 

Conduct of the tmigrts . . . . 262 

1815 Napoleon leaves Elba, February 26, 1815 . . 263 
He lands in France, March i, 1815 . . . 263 
His triumphant march to Paris . . . 263 
Pacific overtures of Napoleon .... 264 
The Allied Powers declaire war, March 25, 18 15 . 264 
Great efforts of Napoleon to restore the French army 265 
Campaign of 18 15 . . . . . 265 
Two plans of operation open to Napoleon . . 265 
He resolves to attack Blucher and Wellington in Bel- 
gium . . . . . . . 265 

Concentration of the French army on the frontier . 266 

It advances on June 15, 1815 .... 266 

Battle of Ligny, June 16, 18 16 , . . 267 
Battle of Quatre Bras, June 15, 1815 . . . 267 
Result of the operations of June 16 . . . 267 
Bliicher rallies the Prussians, and moves to join Wel- 
lington on a second line . . . . 268 

Movements of Napoleon and Wellington on June 17, 

1815 ....... 269 

Miscalculations of Napoleon .... 269 

Results of the operations of June 17 . . . 269 

Great battle of Waterloo, June 18, 1815 . . 270 

Defeat and rout of the French army , . . 271 

Reflections on the campaign .... 271 

Conclusion . . . . . • . 273 

Appendix ...... 275 



LIST OF MAPS. 



Europe in 1789, . . : . . to face page 19 
Europe IN 1 812, . . . . . " " 234 



THE 



FRENCH REVOLUTION. 



CHAPTER I. 



STATE OF FRANCE BEFORE THE REVOLUTION. 

The French Revolution marks the be- General 

character 

ginning of a new era in the History of the and results of 

tTT 1 1 A • • • r T r. the French 

World. A rising in one of the great States Revolution, 
of Europe against a long-settled order of things, it over- 
threw society in France, and wrought violent changes in 
the Continent ; and, at last, directed by military genius, 
it culminated in domination and conquest, followed .ulti- 
mately by a terrible retribution. During the progress 
of this wonderful movement ancient landmarks of i^esr 
son, of thought, and of faith, were suddenly set aside or 
effaced ; the birth of a new age was ushered in by atro- 
cious deeds of disorder and blood ; and in the gigantic 
strife which ensued the boundaries of Empires were 
wildly shifted and war was seen in unparalleled grandeur. 
We are, perhaps even now, too near these events to 
pronounce with confidence a judgment upon them; 
yet some of the results may be rapidly glanced at. The 
Revolution has destroyed a great deal that was woith- 
B 



2 France before the Revolution. ch. i. 

less and in decay in France ; it has stimulated the in- 
dustry and promoted the material progress and wealth 
of the nation ; and it has given better institutions to a 
large part of the Continent, and removed a number of 
ancient abuses. Yet, it may be questioned whether, as 
regards the permanent interests pf mankind, this pariod 
of confusion, and the rule of the sword, has not led to 
as much evil as good. At present it seems impossible 
to form anything like an enduring government in 
France ; faith and loyalty have lost their former power 
in the land of Coligny, Bayard, and Turenne. Europe, 
in Napoleon's remarkable phrase, appears destined, 
from the Tagus to the Volga, to become half Republi- 
can and half Cossack. Though wild theories of free- 
dom disturb society in vast tracts of the Continent, true 
liberty and order have not been reconciled, and Des- 
potism and Democracy are at sullen feud; whole na- 
tions have been turned into armed camps, preparing for 
an internecine struggle ; at no period have international 
rights and the claims and privileges of weak States 
been so openly held in little respect ; and those omi- 
nous phenomena may, in different degrees, be all as- 
cribed to the world from 1789 to 181 5. 
It exhibited In the peculiar features of the French Re- 

peculi^r fea volution wc tracc plainly the characteristics 
tures of the of the remarkable people in which it had its 

French nation- ^ ^ 

ai character. origin. No Other Community in Europe, 
perhaps, would, after a protracted period of torpor, have 
so suddenly awakened to agitated life, or so hastily rushed 
along the path of innovation. In no other community 
would attempts at reform have been marked by such 
rash extravagance united to many generous aspirations ; 
m none would theories of Government aiid Law have 
been carried out with equal recklessness and so grave 



CH. I. France before the Revolution, 3 

a contempt of existing facts, and yet have been pre- 
sented to the world in such alluring colors. Hardly 
any other European nation would have exhibited such 
vehement outbursts of passion ; would, in all that relates 
to political life, have passed so rapidly to opposite ex- 
tremes, and oscillated with such uncertain quickness; 
would with such apparent readiness have cowered under 
a ferocious tyranny of which the crimes cast a deep 
stain on the French name ; would have welcomed with 
such general acclaim a despotism of the sword as the 
best mode of government ; would so eagerly have given 
up the brilliant visions of a few years before, to follow 
the phantom of military glory ; or would so carelessly 
have abandoned its idol when it seemed to have lost its 
magical influence. Yet, on the other hand, few com- 
munities indeed, have displayed the noble though unre- 
flecting ardor seen occasionally in the movement of 
1789; have in defending the natal soil against appa- 
rently irresistible odds, given proof of the energy of 
1793 — 4, overrated as that energy has been; have in- 
scribed on their annals such a roll of victories as Rivoli, 
Areola, Jena, Austerlitz, Hohenlinden, Friedland, and 
a hundred more; have made efforts that will compare 
with those made by France from 1792 to 181 5. It should 
be remembered, moreover, that for evil or good, all 
these manifestations of French nature were largely due 
to circumstances of an extraordinary kind; and, proba- 
bly, but for influences alien to it, the Revolution would 
have run a less terrible course. In one particular 
France was true to her general history during this 
period. Her influence over adjoining countries has at 
all times been distinct and immense ; and it never was 
so great as when it swept away thrones, dominations, 
princedoms, and powers, in a pretended crusade for the 



4 France before the Revolution. CH. i. 

Rights of Man, and placed the Continent under the feet 

of Napoleon. 

.The Monarchy ^^^ though the qualities of Frenchmen 

of France be- mark the Revolution throughout its pro- 
tore the Kevo- - ° '^ 

lution ; abuses gress, we must not suppose that a great 
of Go^vern-^"^ change was not inevitable before that event. 
ment. T)l\.<^ institutions of France had ceased long 

previously to be in accord with the wants of the nation, 
and the frame of society seemed out of joint, and falling 
into decay and weakness.^ The Government was an 
ancient Despotism, which gave no scope to political life, 
or guarantee for rational freedom, and under which the 
mass of the people were considered as serfs to be ruled 

* It has been obviously impossible, in a sketch like this, to com- 
ment at length on the state of France before the Revolution, or to 
describe in detail the institutions of the Bourbon Monarchy, and 
their working. The number of valuable works on these subjects 
is so great, that it is difficult to make a selection for the reader. 
Perhaps the best general account of the political condition of old 
France will be found in M. de Tocqueville's L^Ancien MSgime et 
la Revolution — see the translation by Henry Reeve, D.C.L., 
edition of 1873; though I venture to think the picture of abuses 
and evils somewhat too lightly colored. Professor Von Sybel's 
History of the French Revolution, though as a narrative dull and 
one-sided, contains also a valuable chapter on the France of Louis 
XV. and XVI, ; and the whole subject is ably treated in the six- 
teenth and last volume of M. Henri Martin's Histoire de France. 
The political and social life of the time has been painted with 
extraordinary force by Mr. Carlyle in his well-known work ; and 
with less justice but with great skill by MM. Michelet and Louis 
Blanc in their Histories of the French Revolution. Arthur Young's 
Travels in France in 1787-9 contain much valuable information 
on the economic state of the country ; and the resume of the 
Cahiers or instructions of the deputies to the States-General of 
1789 bring out in clear and full relief the innumerable grievances 
of the nation. 



CH. I. France before the Revolution. 5 

at pleasure. Here and there, indeed, the shadows sur- 
vived of Estates which had controlled the Monarchy, 
and the Parliament of Paris still retained the semblance 
of an august authority ; but practically, in the greater 
part of France, the only checks on the will of the Sove- 
reign were either inadequate or simply vexatious. In 
most of the Provinces the edicts of the King, however 
oppressive, had the force of law ; the Crown generally 
could impose taxes, imprison the subject without hope 
of redress, and interfere with the course of justice; and Jp 
its powers were asserted and carded home everywhere ^ 
by a system of administration highly centralized, and 
not seldom corrupt and iniquitous. Under this scheme 
of arbitrary rule true national liberty could not grow up ; 
securities for public and private rights, long enjoyed in 
England, had no existence ; and acts of violence and of 
cruel wrong were by no means of uncommon occurrence. 
It would, in truth, be easy to show that the Monarchy 
supplied, in many respects, too faithful precedents to 
the Reign of Terror ; and wholesale massacres, ruthless 
deportations, robbery in the shape of forced -contribu- 
tions, arrests, and detentions without trial, confiscations, > 
and frauds on the debts of the State, were known in 
France before 1793, though Jacobinism exaggerated in 
a few months misdeeds previously spread over centuries. 
Nor had the Monarchy, since the time of Louis XIV., 
exhibited that regard for the common weal, and that 
munificence in the national interests, which have so 
often veiled the evils of despotism in the eyes of the 
unthinking millions, and are sometimes of real benefit 
to them. More then one of the noble creations of Col- 
bert* had been allowed to fall into decay; the great 

* Jean Baptiste Colbert, one of the greatest ministers of Louis 



6 France before the Revolution. CH. i. 

highways and canals of France were in several districts 
in a state of ruin; and, while gorgeous luxury revelled 
in the palace, the public service was starved and ne- 
glected. Louis XV. probably spent more money on his 
harem than on any department of the State, and even 
in his successor's reign it was thought a marvel that 
during a struggle with England the king should have 
devoted to the fleet a mere fraction of his princely 
revenue. 

The Church Bcside the Monarchy, yet not giving the 

and the Nobil- , ,. , , ^ i ^ 

ity. Why these throne so^id and useful support, were two 
comrgeneraily gi'cat Orders which, at one time, had been 
disliked. supreme in France, and still held a high 

place in the State. The Church raised its front in feu- 
dal magnificence, enriched lavishly with the wealth of 
centuries, and possessing immense estates and a large 
jurisdiction ; and its dignitaries formed a kind of nobil- 
ity, drawn generally from the great Houses of France, 
and still invested with many privileges. These patrician 
prelates and lordly abbots were marked off by a broad 
line of distinction from the body of the inferior clergy ; 
and their haughty demeanor and pretentious pride made 
them generally objects of fear and dislike. Beside them, 
spread over the whole of France, was the numerous 
Order of the lay Nobles, who formed one of the most un- 
popular and worthless castes that had grown out of the 
decay of the Middle Ages. The French Seigneurie of 
this period still possessed many of the most odious privi- 
leges of Feudalism in the sixteenth century ; they were 

XIV., bom 1619, died 1683. In addition to the extraordinary- 
impulse he gave to commerce and manufactures in France, he 
founded the dockyards of Brest, Teulon, and Rochefort, almost 
created the French navy, and constructed many of the great roads 
and canals of the country. 



CH. I. France before the RevobUion. 7 

largely exempted from State Taxation, and enjoyed 
rights of the most oppressive kind over their vassals' pro- 
perty and even persons ; and yet they were not linked 
by the more kindly ties of feudalism to their humble de- 
pendents; for, with many and honorable exceptions, 
they very seldom lived on their lands, and squandered 
their rents at Versailles or in Paris, They were, too, to 
a great extent, composed of new men and needy adven- 
turers, who would have thrown discredit on any class ; 
and they boasted but few historic names, illustrious for 
their services to the State, and justifying by their past or 
recent achievements the rank and position of the whole 
Order. Can we wonder that such a body as this, at 
once tyrannical and ignoble, was viewed in France with 
general dislike, and that the eighty thousand families of 
which it was composed, which held in thraldom, per- 
haps, two-thirds of the peasantry and the soil of the 
country, and locust-like preyed upon its resources, were 
in most instances dreaded and abhorred ? The cause, 
however, has yet to be noted which perhaps contributed 
most to expose the Seigneurie to universal odium. It 
was easy enough to become a noble in France by honor- 
able or dishonorable means ; but the Nobles stood apart, 
as a class divided from all below them by the harshest 
distinctions ; and the result was that they displayed an 
arrogance, an insolence, and a contempt of others, not 
readily understood in our time. It was quite usual for 
the young noblesse of that day to run down the canaille 
of the streets, and to insult the wives of the bourgeois to 
their husbands' faces; and, not fifty years previously, a 
distinguished seigneur had made it a grievance that 
Louis XV. should have administered to him a mild re- 
buke for following the pastime of shooting peasants.^ 
Undoubtedly many of the nobility of France were men 



8 France before the Revolution. ch. i. 

of a very different kind; but in the large majority ex- 
clusive privilege had developed its ordinary conse- 
quences, 
rr., r Yet, however august the Monarchy 

1 he power of _ *=" •' 

the ruling or- Seemed, and high the state of the Church 
vided and de- and the Nobles, their powers, nevertheless, 
consequemly ^^^® wcak and divided. The Sovereign 
weak. of France had not full control over the ul- 

timate support of all authority, for the Army was, to a 
considerable extent, in the hands of princes and great 
seigneurs independent of the Crown in different de- 
grees ; and the soldiery, shut out from promotion and 
reward, and subjected to a cruel and degrading disci- 
pline, had long been filled with elements of disaffec- 
tion. The power of the Monarchy, too, was crossed 
and thwarted by the decaying remains of feudal insti- 
tutions no longer capable of doing good ; and it had 
lost a great share of the patronage of the State, and of 
the administration of the public service, through the 
ruinous practice of selling offices which had gone on for 
several generations. Thus while the prerogatives of the 
King were immense, and were often exercised with ex- 
-1^ treme harshness, the Monarchy was deficient in essen-^ 
'^^ tial strength ; its action was impeded in many spheres 
in which its influence should have been absolute ; and 
it was, in a great and dangerous degree, deprived of the 
right of an Executive Government to select and dispose 
of its own instruments. As for the Church, virtue had 
: gone out of it, and it was enfeebled by imbecility and 
; discord. The hierarchy might boast of their sounding 
"^"^'^^itles, and walk in purple and fine linen, but their moral 
influence had become nought ; and though they could 
still torture oppressed Huguenots, and condemn heretical 
books to the flames, they were unable to stem the tide 



CH. I. France before the Revolution. g 

of thought that was sweeping away their proud preten- 
sions. _Besides, little sympathy existed between these 
*^ 'VP^tentates and the lower clergy, divided from them by 
a broad barrier ; and while in the high places of the 
Church no Bossuet stepped out to do battle with Vol- 
taire, in many dioceses the village cures were secret 
enemies of their superiors, and hated the ecclesiastical 
system around them. The condition of the nobility, 
too, was one of weakness and internal dissension. In a 
State ruled as France long had been, the Order had 
little poHtical power ; and though it possessed most 
unjust privileges, and extravagant and oppressive local 
rights, its authority was exceedingly small in all that 
related to the central Government. The Nobles were 
not a great aristocracy with a potent voice in the na- 
tional councils ; they had no part in the work of legis- 
lation ; and their influence was scanty and jealously 
curtailed in many departments of the public service, 
and even in the administration of the country districts. 
A tacit feud, too, existed between the more distinguished 
and inferior nobility: the Montmorencies and La Tre- 
mouilles despised the crowd of new and petty seigneurs 
whose pretensions seemed a disgrace to their own ; and 
enlightened members of the Order condemned the in- 
solence, tyranny, and greed, of the great mass of the 
men who called them fellows. 

It should be observed, moreover, that the _. . ' 

Dissensions 

different Orders which embodied power and between the 
grandeur in France had been repeatedly in church, and 
angry collision, and their representatives diJcSt^of^ail 
had largely incurred discredit. A quarrel authority. 
between the Crown and the Nobles had come down from 
the days of Louis XIV., and had raged at intervals dur- 
ing the reign of his successors. The Parliament of 



lo France before the Revolution. ch. i. 

Paris, too, had, more than once, risen against royal 
assumptions or claims; and Louis XV., at the bidding 
of a harlot, had treated this body with odious severity. 
The Church, besides, had had many squabbles with what 
may be called the party of the Court nobles, and the 
Parliaments of the kingdom had often resisted its bigoted 
and intolerable assumptions, though they had joined 
zealously in Huguenot persecutions, and, with the char- 
acteristic feelings of lawyers, had steadily refused to 
make changes in a barbarous scheme of criminal pro- 
cedure. It is easy to estimate the effects of these open 
and public conflicts ; the authorities of the State laid bare 
the v/eakness and vices of the institutions of France to 
the eyes of a nation deprived of its rights, and the grow- 
ing contempt that was felt for them, and their unpopu- 
larity largely increased. As to the reputation of the 
higher Orders in France during the greater part of the 
eighteenth century, it is almost superfluous to refer to it. 
The orgies of the Regency can be only compared with 
those of the worst pagan Caesars ; and Louis XV. was a 
degraded being, a slave of coarse and unmanly vices, 
and a puppet of scheming priests and mistresses, all the 
more despicable because not their dupe. As for the no- 
bility, whether in Church or State, some, doubtless, were 
blameless and illustrious men, but the great majority 
were only conspicuous for dissoluteness, extravagance, 
and frivolous luxury. The scandalous and not concealed 
debaucheries of cardinals and bishops had been common 
. talk ; and the ordinary life of the better of the class was 
a graceful round of refined amusement, of idleness, and 
of epicurean indulgence. Decline, however, was most 
apparent and beyond remedy in the lay nobility. Even 
among the historic families of France hardly a name of 
real eminence appeared ; and the Richelieus and Condes, 



CH. I. France before the Revolution. ii 

who had built up the reahn, had degenerated into fops 
and courtiers. As for the great mass of the Nobles, they 
were different beings from the chivalry of Rocroi and 
Landen ; very few had won honor in the field ; their man- 
hood was wasted in gambling and intrigues, in mere dis- 
play and effeminate pursuits ; and their ignorance and " 
listlessness were on a par with their overweening arro- 
gance and conceit. Not many of the young gallants of 
this time could write even a common letter; and pulling 
out the threads of silk tissue seemed to fine ladies the 
business of a day. Contrast in this, and in all other 
respects, the characteristics of the aristocracy of England 
trained under the discipline of public life, and taught to 
discharge high social duties by a vigilant and exacting 
general opinion. 

Under this array of grandeur and state, 
iniquitous and oppressive, but really weak ; commons of 
with splendid traditions, but no vital strength ; ^^^']^^- , '^^^ 

^ _ o > middle classes ; 

with lofty pretensions, but failing and de- how they 
cried, was marshalled the ill-governed Na- from the Peo- 
tion : the twenty-five millions of the French resuUs. 
Commons, who, it was said, " counted as 
nothing in France." Discordant elements, however, 
lurked in the mass ; and it is necessary to perceive this 
truth, or we shall never understand the events that 
ensued. A great Middle Class had grown up in France, 
especially in the principal towns ; and the professional 
and mercantile Orders, reaping the fruits of ages of 
honorable toil, and not spoiled by luxurious idleness, 
had, in numberless instances, amassed wealth, and 
attained to a high degree of refinement. An aristocracy 
of riches and culture had been formed among the law- 
yers, the physicians, the manufacturers, and other 
traders ; and though it had been trained in a bad school 



12 France before the Revolution. ch. i. 

of thought, and was wholly wanting in political know- 
ledge, it really comprised what was niost enlightened, 
most intelligent, and truly sound in the kingdom. This 
numerous and respectable class disapproved of the 
existing order of things, in which they were esteemed 
inferior beings, and especially regarded the Nobles with 
dislike, whose insolence was often directed against them. 
But, as regards the mass of the Nation, they too were 
isolated and stood apart ; and a whole series of invidious 
distinctions cut them off from the People from which 
they sprung. In fact. Feudalism had left its stamp on 
this as on other Orders of the State, and a policy of dis- 
tinction had made the mark deeper. The professions, 
the trades, and the industries of France, were organized 
on a system of exclusive privilege, and of grasping and 
close monopoly ; and they formed everywhere a number 
of Corporations, of guilds, and of separate castes, with 
distinctive rights and peculiar immunities. The Bour- 
geoisie, as they were contemptuously called, were thus 
led to look down with scorn on the bulk of the com- 
munity around ; and though eminent men were among 
their ranks, they had little sympathy with the great body, 
of the People, and they were viewed, as a general rule.j 
with envy and ill-feeling by their poorer dependents. 
One of the cardinal facts of this period is the alienation 
that existed between the great employers of labor in 
France and the workmen and artisans of the towns, and 
it marked many phases of the Revolution. 

In France, therefore, deep lines of distinction divided 
the Upper and Middle Orders, and separated both alike 
from the People. In no country were differences of 
class more offensively marked, and yet more unpopu- 
lar ; and Feudalism, which had knit society, in one of 
its stages, in close dependence, now broke it up into 



CH. I. France before the Revolution. 13 

disunited fragments. We turn to consider the mass of 
the Nation, which may be viewed in its two chief parts, 
the inhabitants of the country, and those of the towns. 
The occupiers of the soil, as a general rule, were sub- 
jected to heavy and vexatious taxation, from which the 
owners, if noble, were exempt ; and, in the distribution 
of the imposts of the State, were frequently treated with 
harsh injustice. Yet these grievances were small com- 
pared to the burdens their lords imposed upon them, 
and to the usage they had often to endure. Condition of 
In a very considerable part of France the the Peasant- 
peasantry held the Jand by a permanent 
right ; and in some of the Provinces, especially in the 
North, large farms were cultivated under long leases. 
Though the peasant estates were greatly subdivided, 
these districts were comparatively thriving; and they 
were easily distinguished by the signs of comfort and of 
agricultural progress evident in them. Yet the cultiva- 
tors even of these favored regions were liable to number- 
less petty vexations, to iniquitous restrictions upon their 
industry, to services sometimes degrading and mean ; 
and their very prosperity caused them to resent the im- 
perious harshness and neglect of duty of their generally 
absentee superiors. In other parts of France the land 
was held, over most of its breadth, by precarious tenures ; 
and, except in a few Provinces, where the relations be- 
tween the lord and vassal were still not unkindly, the 
occupiers were a race of serfs, ground down by rack- 
rents and feudal oppression, kept in abject dependence, 
exposed to wrong, and often struggling on the verge of 
destitution. The districts held on these wretched con- 
ditions seemed, in spots, smitten as it were with barren- 
ness ; and an experienced eye-witness^" wrote that, ex- 

'■■ Arthur Youncj. 



14 France before the Revolution. CH. i. [ 

cept in Ireland — at that time in her very worst state — 
he had never beheld such squalor and misery. In these 
tracts the food of the peasant was not seldom nettles and 
pulse ; and it was in these that, a few years afterwards, 
rose the troops of half-clad and ferocious savages, who, 
at the first whisper that deliverance was near, burned 
the chateaux of the abhorred seigneurs, on whom they' 
laid the charge of their sufferings. The condition of the 
lowest tillers of the soil must have been pitiable in this 
state of things ; and there is reason to believe that the 
wages of the agricultural laborer in France before the 
Revolution were not half (in some places) what they 
have since become. As for the population of the towns, 
_. ' it had been allowed to multiply densely in 

Of the popu- . r J J 

lationofthe ignorance and want; and the large cities 
swarmed with dangerous classes — poor, dis- 
contented, and enemies of the rich, who stood selfishly 
aloof from them — and blindly eager for any change. It 
was from these orders that Jacobinism recruited its 
armies of devastation and crime — ^the murderers who 
crowded the prisons with corpses — the furies who 
shrieked round the guillotine. 

It should be remembered, too, that while the whole 
frame of Society in France was thus ill-ordered, and its 
component parts were weakened and diseased, a spirit 
of wild innovation had grown up, which fiercely assailed -^ 
the tottering structure. Thought, at least among the 
privileged classes, had long been comparatively free ; 
and it had embodied itself in a brilliant literature, auda- 
_ . cioiis, sceptical, yet unreflecting, which held 

Destructive ^ ... . 

and sceptical up almost cvcry institution, and even the 

toneofcontem- • ,. j r .^ • , • ^ 

porary French existmg Ordcr of thlUgS, tO Universal con- 
Literature, tempt and ridicule. The movement, doubt- 
less, originating in the inexperience in political life of 



CH. I. France before the Revolution. 15 

French men of letters, like all other Frenchmen, received 
a definite character from two men of genius ; and while 
Voltaire sapped away the throne, the altar, and the 
privileges of the great by keen satire and malignant wit, 
the more profound Rousseau constructed theories for 
the regeneration and happiness of mankind, which bade 
defiance to all social arrangements. Thus intellect, 
which, in a healthy State, is always upon the side of order, 
and aims only at temperate reforms, became destructive 
and anarchic in France ; and though it would be a mis- 
take to think that it caused the Revolution, the causes 
of which lay much deeper, it accelerated that event, and 
left its mark upon it. Strange to say, too, so little were 
the signs of the coming time understood in France, this 
godless, false, and spurious philosophy found high favor 
among the classes destined to suffer most cruelly from it. 
It had become the custom before the Revolution, to scoff 
at faith, to decry the past, to relish attacks on people in 
high places, to complain of the absurdities of class dis- 
tinctions, to see in the complication of old laws and cus- 
toms a mass of rubbish to be swept away, to put together 
pretty and ingenious systems for making the world a 
scene of pleasure ; and lettered marquises and brocaded 
dames babbled of the philosophic dictionary, and the 
contrat social, as though doctrines fatal to their preten- 
sions at least were the very perfection of truth and wis- 
dom. Of all the phenomena of this period, none is more 
instructive than this curious spectacle of the natural sup- 
porters of social order playing with the instruments that 
were to hasten its ruin. 

This sketch of France before the Revolu- ^he progress 
tion may seem overcharged with dark colors o/evii con- 

tinned down to 

as respects the immediately preceding- period, the Revolution. 
But the sympathy which the appalling fate of thousands 



x6 France before the Revolution, ch. i. 

of unhappy victims evokes, ought not to blind us to the 
fact, that the worst evils of which we have given a brief 
account, were never more apparent and active than dur- 
ing the reign of Louis XVI. The King was certainly 
well-meaning ; but the Monarchy was seldom guilty of . 
acts more arbitrary, violent, and iniquitous than those 
sanctioned by Brienne* and Calonne. f At no time 
were the imbecility of the State and the dissensions 
between the privileged Orders more plainly evident than 
when Louis was twice compelled to dismiss his minister, 
at the bidding of an insolent party of the Noblesse, and 
when the Sovereign, the Notables, and the Parliament 
of Paris, were in angry collision on such subjects as the 
Public Debt and national bankruptcy. At no time, too, 
was the throne more weak than when Princes of the 
Blood were conspiring against it, or when the unjust re- 
forms of St. Germain % had increased the growing dis- 
content of the Army. Nor at any period were the high 
ecclesiastics and Nobles of France more widely unpopu- 
lar than when they clamored against Necker and Turgot,§ 

* Lomenie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse and Sens, born 
1727, died 1794. As minister of Louis XVL he exiled the Par- 
liament of Paris to Troyes in 1787, and compelled it to register 
edicts of the King which it had opposed. 

f Charles Alexandre Calonne, Minister of Louis XVL, born 1734, 
died 1802. He wasted recklessly the finances of the State, quar- 
relled with the Notables whom he had convened in 1786, and is 
believed to have promoted the policy afterwards followed. 

X Claude Louis St. Germain, born 1707, died 1778. As minister 
of war to Louis XVL he introduced a harsh and degrading disci- 
pline in the French army ; and by his advice commissions were 
afterwards more restricted than they had ever been before to the 
class of the nobles. 

^ For an account of the policy of Necker and Turgot, and of 
their plans of reform, see M. Henri Martha's IlisLuire de France, 



CH. I. France before the Revolution. 17 

and, at a season of national distress, refused to submit 
to equal taxation ; nor had the lives'of the class mended, 
though vice was, doubtless, less gross and cynical than 
in the days of Louis XV., and the arrogance of the great 
was sometimes tempered by a condescension not less 
insolent. Never, too, were the distinctions of class more 
sharply defined than at this juncture, and felt with more 
bitter resentment ; and at no time had the poorer classes, 
in consequence of numerous bad harvests, suffered more 
hardships or been worse treated. Nor was the spirit even 
of the central Government patriotic, or in the general 
interest : its feeble attempts at superficial reforms were, 
for the most part, purely selfish expedients ;, and, even 
when judicious, they were abandoned at the first symptom 
of class opposition. The King and Queen, too, did not 
escape the discredit which had fallen on all dignities ; 
the weak character and awkward demeanor of Louis 
XVI. provoked contempt; and though the life of Marie 
Antoinette was pure, foul scandal had gathered around 
her name. The period, it is unnecessary to say, was 
especially one of wild speculations and of shallow 
schemes of universal change ; and, in a word, all the 
elements of ill which had been gradually collecting in 
France had lost none of their fatal power. 

Such, then, briefly was the condition of Brilliant an- 
France before the crisis of 1789. English the^future in 
statesmen* trained in political life had long ^I'^nce. 

vol. xvi. Speaking generally, the measures they advocated were 
the abolition of the monopolies that sapped French industry, an 
equitable distribution of taxes instead of the injustice that prevailed, 
retrenchment, the publication of the finances of the State, decen- 
tralization, and something like representative assemblies. Turgot, 
however, was a much abler man than Necker. 

* As far back as 1753 Lord Chesterfield had written : " All the 
C 



1 8 France before the Revolution. ch. i. 

before seen that a change was at hand but no min- 
ister of Louis XVI . — few, as far as we know, among 
thinkers in France — had the least apprehension of 
coming danger. Many in high places, as we have seen, 
were intent on sweeping abuses away, and had plan- 
ned magnificent schemes of reform ; and the an- 
nouncement that the States-General would meet seemed 
the dawn of a new and golden age to thousands fore- 
doomed to death or exile. Even the agitation which 
followed that event — the disturbances which broke out 
. in several provinces, the blind stirrings of the unen- 
franchised millions, dull, unintelligible, and yet ominous, 
and the clamorous exultation of the middle classes, who 
thought their time of hope had arrived — did not dis- 
sipate these illusions ; for it was believed that the genius 
of a polite age would not allow popular excesses or 
passions. With these shallow and idle visions — the 
growth of ignorance, and of the false sentiment which 
pervaded a society in an unhealthy state — was mingled 
much that was truly noble, many generous and high 
aspirations ; and a glowing rainbow of deceitful hope 
shone brilliantly over the dark torrent that was carrying 
old France to the depths below. 

symptoms which I have ever met with in history, previous to great 
changes and revolutions in government, now exist and daily in- 
crease in France." 



\w-^ 



EUROPE 

1789 







CH. II. States- General and National Assembly. 1 9 



CHAPTER II. 

THE STATES-GENERAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. 

On May 5, 1780, the States General met , . , 

r 1 / • TT Ml Tv/r , Meeting of 

for the first time at Versailles. More than the States Gen- 
a hundred and seventy years had passed ^^^ ' 
since, in the youth of the Bourbon Monarchy, this 
ancient Assembly of the Estates of the Realm had con- 
sulted upon the common weal ; and they were now con- 
vened for the same purpose when that Monarchy was 
in decline and peril. The spectacle formed an impos- 
ing sight, and it seemed for a moment as if the elements 
of the long discordant community of France had 
blended in happy and auspicious union through the 
representatives of its different Orders. A great hall had 
been laid out in the palace, and prepared in stately and 
magnificent pomp ; and royalty welcomed the National 
Estates, composed of more than twelve hundred depu- 
ties, with a splendor worthy of the solemn occasion. 
The King, with the ministers of State, in front, and the 
Queen and Princes of the blood at his side, sate on a 
throne brilliant with purple and gold ; below, arrayed 
in separate processions, spread the ranks of the Nobles, 
all plumes and lace ; of the Commons, in homely and 
simple garb ; of the Clergy, the superb robes of the pre- 
lates mingling strangely with the cassocks of the village 
priests ; and from galleries above a throng of courtiers, 
of jewelled dames, and of foreign envoys, contemplated 
curiously the interesting scene. Outside, crowds of 
eager spectators filled the balconies and covered the 
roofs of Versailles, decked out gaily for a brilliant holi- 




-^ i^^ ^ "^ 






ig digitized, and will be inserted at 
future date. 



20 States- Genei^al and National Assembly, ch, ii. 

day ; and the groups extended as far as the capital, 
already stirring with passionate excitement. All seemed 
deference, good-will, and hope, when the King an- 
nounced that he had called together the wisdom of 
France to assist at his counsels ; and even a declaration 
that his chief object was to provide for the pressing 
wants of the State did not weaken the prevailing senti- 
ment. Yet it was observed with regret that the face of 
the Queen seemed overclouded with settled care ; and 
jealousy had been aroused in more than one breast by 
the distinctions drawn by the officials of the Court, and 
by the contrast between the feudal magnificence of the 
nobility and the lordly hierarchy, and the plebeian as- 
pect of the meanly-attired Commons. 
_, ^ On the following day the Estates were 

The Com- ... ,.^ .. 

mons declare invitcd, their first sittmg havmg been 

themselves the , - - , , , . - , , 

National merely formal, to meet agam for the de- 

Assembly, spatch of business. The intention of Necker, 
the chief minister, had been to convene them for the 
object mainly of procuring supplies for an exhausted 
treasury — an increasing deficit had for many years been 
one symptom of the ills of the State — but it had long 
been arranged that they were to advise on the adminis- 
tration and general affairs of the kingdom. A prelimi- 
nary question, however, arose, which brought out 
distinctly the deep-seated differences already existing 
in this Assembly. According to ancient precedent, the 
separate Orders of the States-General gave their votes 
apart ; and the Nobles and Clergy, if they coalesced, 
could easily neutralize the will of the Commons, voting 
being by orders and not by persons, and the votes of 
two orders being thus decisive. Trusting to this usage, 
the Court had consentedj^Tn the elections, which had 
lately taken place, that the number of the representa- 



CH. II. States-General and National Assembly, 21 

tives of the people should be double what it had been 
formerly ; for it was thought no danger could possibly 
arise, and the concession was a popular measure. The 
Commons, however, had made up their minds not to be 
reduced to ciphers by ancient forms ; and they insisted, 
accordingly, that the three Orders should hold their de- 
liberations apart, and that votes should be given by head ; 
that is, be determined by the majority of individuals in 
the collective Assembly. The Nobles protested against 
this scheme, being but three against more than six hun- 
dred Commons ; and they resisted an invitation to a 
fusion in "which their influence might be diminished, the 
three hundred clergy, though divided in mind, siding 
with them at the command of the bishops. During 
several weeks the separate Orders stood sullenly aloof 
and almost hostile, and nothing in the nature of busi- 
ness was done, to the mortification of a minister and a 
Court exceedingly in need of a supply of money. The 
Commons, however, held firm, backed by messages 
from the provinces, and by the attitude of the great 
neighboring city, already effervescing with agitation ; 
and at last they adopted a decided course. On June 17, 
it ,being known that some Liberal nobles were on their 
side, and several of the inferior clergy having come to 
them, they declared themselves the National Assembly 
of France ; and, while they invited their fellow-members 
to join them, announced that nothing should prevent 
their proceeding " to begin the work of national regene- 
ration." 

Three days after this important event, the Commons 
found, to their extreme surprise, the great hall at Ver- 
sailles, in which they had sate, shut up ; and the Grand 
Master of the Ceremonies curtly told Bailly — a distin- 
guished member whom they had chosen president — that 



2 2 States- General and National Assembly, ch. ii. 

the place was wanted for the royal convenience. Alarm 
was seen in many faces, for a sudden act of violence was 
feared ; but, at the instance of one or two courageous 
„, , , men, the whole body betook itself to an old 

The oath of ' , . . 

the Tennis Tennis Court at a short distance, and, 

Court, June 20. • j . r • j. v j. 

amidst a scene of passionate excitement, 
swore a solemn oath " that it would never separate until 
it had set the constitution on a sure foundation." (June 
20.) Meanwhile the Court had been forming schemes 
for dealing with these extraordinary proceedings, and 
for putting an end to a state of things which appeared 
to it the wildest presumption. Necker, timid and cau- 
tious, proposed a compromise, to which it is said the 
King inclined ; but the counsels of an extreme party 
prevailed, and it was resolved to make a display of 
vigor. On June 23, having been kept standing by offi- 
cial insolence for some time under rain, the Commons 
were summoned again to the great hall ; and the King 
read them a lecture, which had been put into his mouth, 
to the effect that it was his pleasure that the three Orders 
should, as in old times, deliberate and vote apart, and 
that, if further resistance were made, "he would do by 
himself alone what was meet for his people." This 
foolish harangue was met in silence ; but when the Grand 
Master of the Ceremonies, following, it is said, the eti- 
quette of the ancient despotism, commanded the Assem- 
bly to depart, he was told by Mirabeau * — a man whose 

* Honore Gabriel Riquetti, Count of Mirabeau, born in 1749, 
was the grandest and most striking figure of the first part of the 
Revolution. This extraordinary man was a noble by birth, but, 
like many Qther French nobles, had joined the party of innovation. 
This attitude was in part caused by the antecedents of a career of 
vice and recklessness, marked, however, by evidences of real 
genius, in which he had quarrelled with his family, and been perse- 



CH. II. States- General and National Asse77ihly. 23 

pen and voice were already a power in France — that 
" they were met there by the will of the people, and that 
bayonets alone should drive them from the spot." In a 
few moments a vote was passed by acclamation, which 
declared the persons of members of the Assembly sacred, 
and made it a capital crime to molest them. 

These bold measures, supported as they were by 
popular demonstrations in Paris, intimidated the Court, 
which thought that the Commons would be silenced 
with as much ease as the old Parliaments had been by 
Beds of Justice, the coups d'etat of the Bourbon Mon- 
archy, by which the Sovereign had often put down 
opposition in these feudal Assemblies. The King, when 
apprised of what had taken place, remarked, it is said, 
only, "Let them stay if they please." With his usual 
weakness, he allowed himself to 'float passively on the 
tide of events. Before this time a considerable number 
of the minor clergy had joined the Commons; and they 
were soon followed by the party in the Nobles which 
wished for reform, and even longed for change. The 
rest of the Order, however, still held aloof; but at last, 
at the request of Louis himself, they gave up an opposi- 
tion that was becoming fruitless, and fell into the ranks 
of what had now been fully ^recognized as the National 
Assembly. This step, however, had been taken in order 
mainly to conceal arrangements by which the extreme 
Court party thought they would triumph and overawe 
the Commons they feared, yet despised. On July 11, 
Necker, whose advice to convene the States-General 

cuted at Court. His powers as an orator were commanding ; and 
though he stooped to become a demagogue, he had true political 
sagacity and insight, and many of the highest qualities of a states- 
man. Many of the most serious charges of contemporaries against 
him seem to be without foundation. 



24 States- General a7id Natio7ial Assembly, ch. ii. 

had made him very popular, whatever his motives were, 

• was dismissed ; a ministry of soldiers and of 

Dismission of reactionary nobles, either unknown or dis- 

Necker, and •' 

formation of a liked, was Set up ; and the Assembly saw, 
Mtnistry.'^^ HOt witliout alarnl, that batteries were being 
constructed at Versailles, and heard that 
troops were approaching in thousands, and that an 
armed force of irresistible strength was being directed 
upon the capital. Rumor spread, too, that it had been 
said in the palace " that the best place for a mutinous 
Assembly was a garrison town where it could be kept 
under," and that the Queen had shown her children to 
noble officers, and had asked, " Could she rely on their 
swords ?" and there was a report of what was described 
as "an orgie " in which ladies of honor had done strange 
things to enthral youthful dragoons and hussars. 

This intelligence, magnified by a thousand 
Paris'.'"^ '" tongues, quickened the already fiery excite- 
ment of Paris, and the flame soon rose into 
a conflagration. On July 12 proclamation was made 
"on the part of the King" to keep the peace; and, pre- 
sently, soldiery with strange faces — ^the half-foreign 
German and Swiss regiments, of which there were 
several in the royal army — were seen occupying the 
central streets and chief squares of the great city. The 
sight caused terror and indignation; angry meetings 
were harangued in the gardens of the Palais Royal by 
passionate speakers ; and a procession was formed car- 
rying at its head busts of Necker and of the Duke of 
Orleans,* whose largesses and opposition to the Court 

* Philippe, Duke of Orleans, born in 1745, was one of the most 
infamous personages of the Revolution, This Prince combined in 
himself all that most depraved and bad in the old noblesse, and 
all that was most odious in the ambitious mob leaders. Having 



CH. II. States- General and National Assembly. 25 

made him one of the idols of the low populace. In a 
charge made to disperse this assemblage, the Germans 
cut down one or two men of the French Guards with a 
few unarmed persons ; and the foreign uniforms were 
ere long seen in the avenues of the Tuileries driving be- 
fore them a scattering collection of citizens in flight. 
These incidents, not in themselves momentous, proved 
the spark that reached the combustible mass, and fired 
it in a wide-spread explosion. A spirit of disaffection — 
the natural result of a brutal discipline, and 
of harsh treatment — had shown itself in the the French 
French Guards, as, indeed, in other parts of ^"ubordTna- 
the Army ; and as it was very apparent in ^|o" i"^ ^^^ 
a body exposed to the allurements and mob 
speeches of Paris — for the Guards were part of the city 
garrison — the men had been lately confined to barracks. 
When the news arrived of the fate of their comrades, the 
Guards broke out and fired at the Germans ; and the 
first example of military insubordination caused the dis- 
solution of all military authority. Shouts of " Long live 
the Nation !" were heard from the quarters of regiments 
usually stationed in the capital ; even the foreign troops 
were affected by the general contagion in a few hours, 

become out of favor at Court, in part on account of his personal 
cowardice, he revenged himself by circulating slanders against the 
Queen, joined the party of reforming nobles, and laid himself out 
to gain popularity in Paris by flattering the populace and by a dis- 
play of extravagance. He became afterwards one of the noisiest of 
the Jacobin leaders ; and between 1789 and 1791 combined more 
than once, for his own selfish ends, against the throne, and even 
the lifeof Louis XVI. His complicity, however, with the crimes 
of the Revolution did not atone for his royal birth ; and though 
he paraded the name of Egalitg which he had assumed, he per- 
ished during the tyranny of Robespierre. 



26 States- General and National Assembly. ch. it. 

and sullenly declared they would not shed blood ; and 
the only resource left to the indignant officers was to 
withdraw the demoralized mass, and to beat a retreat. 
A thrill of exultation ran through Paris at the disappear- 
ance of the strange invaders ; and power once dreaded 
having proved worthless, disorder and violence were let 
loose. During the night the city was wildly astir ; the 
dark swarms of poverty and vice, which became after- 
wards the legions of the Reign of Terror, emerged in 
thousands from their wretched haunts, mingled here and 
there with less hideous groups ; and shops were sacked, 
and the great Town Hall invaded by these mobs to the 
cry of " Arms !" Next morning a provisional committee, 
composed of the chief men of the sixty districts into 
which Paris had been divided, took the rule of the capi- 
tal into their hands, the old authorities having proved 
powerless ; and an endeavor was made to give a kind 
of organization to the movement, and in some measure 
to direct and control it. The citizens were encouraged 
to form themselves into a militia of volunteers drawn 
from the districts ; these bands were to wear 
mune, the i^ their cockades the Parisian colors of blue 

Guard ^^ and red; and they were not only to find 

arms as best they could, but arms were 
liberally supplied to them. M. de Flesseles, head of the 
old town Council, was made president of this board ; 
and, though the objects of the members varied, a 
general intention certainly prevailed to keep the insur- 
rection within bounds. Such was the origin of the world- 
renowned Commune of Paris, and of the National Guard, 
names of deep significance in the Revolution. 

Although partly controlled by these means, the revo- 
lutionary movement went on throughout the day with 
terrible energy. The levies of the district started into 



1 789. States- General aftd National Assembly 2 7 

life, and were enrolled into the new civic army; the 
streets bristled with forests of pikes ; arms were violently 
seized wherever they were found ; and mobs were seen 
trailing antique caAnon, and tossing about pieces of 
feudal armor, torn recklessly from arsenals, with swords 
and muskets. On the whole, however, the better class 
of citizens predominated in the National Guard, and 
checked the excesses of the lowest populace ; and 
though it was accelerated by such events, the time had 
not yet come when the violent elements of society were 
to overpower all others. The presence of this better 
order of men in the ranks is strong proof of the general 
indignation felt at the late demonstration made by the 
Court ; and the rising was anything but the mere work 
of a mob set on by a few designing leaders. In the 
afternoon the French Guards, to a man, went over to 
the popular side, their terrified officers protesting in 
vain ; and, amidst wild shouts of passionate exultation, 
they were made grenadiers of the National Guard, and 
played an important part in the events that followed. 
On the 14th a great crowd entered the court-yard of the 
Hospital of the Invalides— a noble establishment like 
our own Woolwich — and the governor was obliged to 
allow them to take the vast store of arms laid up in the 
arsenal, for the inmates passively seconded their efforts. 
By this time nearly 80,000 men had been marshalled 
more or less regularly ; and as no signs of resistance 
appeared, they were encouraged to acts of more open 
daring. On the verge of the quarter of Saint Antoine 
rose the celebrated fortress of the Bastille ; and it was 
resolved to attack this dreaded place, the very emblem 
of ancient despotism, and infamous for its mysterious 
horrors. An armed mass poured down to the spot, and 
after an ineffectual attempt at a parley, the drawbridge 



28 States- General and National Assembly, ch.ii. 

Siege and ^'^^^ passcd, and the inner court reached, 

storming of close to the eis^ht frowning towers of the 

the Bastille, , , . -.• r 

July 14th, hated dungeon. A discharge of musketry 

^"^ ^' drove the assailants back ; but cannon were 

brought up by the late French Guards and a white flag 
before long was waved from the ramparts, the comman- 
dant, Delaunay, having been compelled by the garrison 
(alarmed or ill-disposed) to surrender. The victors 
rushed into the ancient den, amazed at the feat they had 
accomplished, and carrying out many of the arcana of 
the place — old instruments of torture, and prison records ; 
but their victory was not unstained by cruelty. The 
greater part, indeed, of the garrison were set free ; but 
Delaunay and several of his men were murdered, and 
their heads were borne on high on pikes — the first of 
many subsequent scenes of the kind. De Flesseles, too, 
was attacked and shot, for a tale spread that he had de- 
ceived the people ; and several other deeds of blood 
were committed. As yet, however, the better part of 
the National Guards maintained comparative order ; 
and the extraordinary and rapid changes which had oc- 
curred had rather proved the weakness of the royal 
authority than brought out anarchy in its most frightful 
aspect. 

Such was the end of this sorry attempt to work a vio- 
lent change in the State, to intimidate the Assembly, 
and to overawe Paris. The result had been to hand 
the capital over to unknown and revolutionary forces, 
and to prove that no trust could be placed in the Army, 
the chief and, usually, the sure instrument of power. 
The extreme Court party stood furious and aghast ; and 
the Count of Artois, the younger brother of the King, 
and the Charles X. of a later age, with two other mag- 
nates of a like stamp, declared that these things were 



1789. States- General and National Assembly, 2 9 

not to be borne, and hastened indignantly over the 
frontier. This was the beginning of the 
emigration — that desertion of the King by ofthfTmi"^ 
his natural supporters which was one of fj^g'^J^ob^g 
the many evil features of the time, though 
the circumstance will not be surprising to those who know 
what little genuine sympathy existed between the nobles 
and the Crown. Meanwhile the Assembly had loudly 
condemned the violent measures attempted by the 
Court ; and Mirabeau alluded, in no ambiguous terms, to 
the part, said to have been taken by the Queen in a 
project " worthy of St. Bartholomew." The King, 
shifting in the usual way, hastened to make peace with 
the stronger side, dismissed the ministerial cabal, and 
recalled Necker : and the Assembly lis- Recall of 
tened with sincere good-will to the explana- ^^^•^^^• 
tions of an amiable being whose principal fault was 
weak simplicity. Soon afterwards a deputation from 
Paris invited him to pay the city a visit : and the Mon- 
arch assented, though Marie Antoinette, indignant at 
the affronts given to royal authority, and knowing how 
unpopular she was herself, entreated him with tears not 
to make the attempt. The citizens, however, proud of 
their triumph, received their Sovereign with acclama- 
tions : and a hint in an address that he had been 
" conquered" was treated graciously by Louis as a joke. 
All that had lately occurred was sanctioned by him ; 
the provisional committee received the ^, ^^. 

... The King 

name of the Commune of Paris, with im- sanctions 
mense powers ; and Bailly, the president been done 
of the Commons, was appointed mayor ; '" Pans, 
while the young Marquis of Lafayette, one of the enthu- 
siastic reforming nobles, was appointed commander-in- 
chief of the National Guard. In sign of reconciliation, 



30 States- General and National Assembly, ch. ii. 
The Tri- the white colors of the House of Bourbon 

color Flag. ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^j^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^f ^|^g 

capital on the ensigns of this force ; and thus originated 
the Tricolor Flag, which Lafayette, with conceit or 
foresight, exclaimed " would soon make the round of 
Europe." Though two or three bad instances of vio- 
lence followed, tranquillity seemed established in Paris 
for a tij^e ; the king returned well pleased to Versailles ; 
but, between impotent threats and feeble concessions, 
how m.uch of the divinity remained that hedged round 
the Monarchy ? 
^. . . , Notwithstanding this quiescence, how- 

Rismg in the , , • , , i i r 

Provinces. evcr, the cvcnts which had taken place in 
Paris went like an electric shock through 
the kingdom. The influence of the capital of France 
over the provinces has always been very great, and it 
acquired additional power at this juncture. The sud- 
den collapse of the majesty of the throne, the successful 
triumph over ancient authority, and, above all, the re- 
volt of the troops, stirred the minds of men to their very 
depths, and long pent up elements of hate and confu- 
sion broke out in many places in appalling strength. 
In the southern, midland, and south-eastern districts, 
wherever Feudalism was most oppressive, wherever 
misery was most keen, the peasantry rose against their 
lords ; and from the Rhone to the Loire there was a 
great blaze of chateaux, the infuriated vassals tossing 
into the flames the charter-chests and muniments which 
contained the records of privileges no longer tolerable. 
A few murders of seigneurs also took place ; even in the 
north the payment of rents and the customary services 
were generally resisted ; and, wretchedness adding force 
to the movement, bands of squalid savages in some 
provinces " descended from the hills, destroying the 



1789. States- General and' National Ass einbly. 3 1 

corn, plundering orchards, and doing all kinds of mis- 
chief." Many of the towns, too, showed signs of insur- 
rection, clamoring for an extension of municipal rights, 
and for an abolition of old monopolies; and violent 
bread and meal riots were frequent, for the year was 
one of peculiar scarcity, and the sufferings of the poorer 
classes were extreme. Nor was the capital itself free 
from causes of disturbance and trouble. Order was, 
indeed, maintained by Lafayette ; Bailly, the mayor, 
labored to please the citizens by civic pomp and gay 
exhibitions ■ emblematic of their newly-acquired liber- 
ties; and the Commune, now formed into a body of 
three hundred members, made efforts to supply the 
wants of the poor, to find employment for artizans out 
of work, to cope with the difficulty of increasing poverty. 
But, as always happens on such occasions, the new 
powers were decried by envious demagogues, the more 
bitterly because they were new ; and of what avail 
were displays of fireworks, enthusiastic " festivals of the 
Bastille," "trees of liberty" rising in gardens and ave- 
nues — nay, even doles, offerings, and all the expedients 
of a merely improvised system of relief — ^to thousands 
of hungry men and women ? Between agitation and 
the presence of want, Paris was soon fermenting with 
elements of disorder, all the more dangerous because as 
yet suppressed. 

These tidings of evil came to interrupt ^ ... 

° _ ^ Legislative 

the consultations of the National Assembly, measures of 

^ - , T , . • T the Assembly. 

It had been engaged m economic discus- 
sions as to thebest means of meeting the deficit, and as 
to framing a new constitution for France ; and high- 
sounding principles of reform, conceived in the spirit 
of the new philosophy, had been already hailed with 
applause ; the measures it adopted to remove or pal- 



^2 States- Gefieral and National Assembly, ch. ir. 

liate the stern practical ills it had now to face were, in 
part, conceived in a generous spirit, but were character- 
istic of the national temperament, and too plainly re- 
vealed the political ignorance and passion for change 
that widely prevailed. As for the towns, the Commune 
of Paris was encouraged in doing whatever it pleased ; 
and Bailly and Lafayette were thanked for their well- 
meant and patriotic efforts. Little was attempted in the 
case of other towns, except to give " promises of free 
trade;" but the middle classes were allowed, or invited, 
to put down disorders, by themselves, by force ; and in 
this manner an armed organization of National Guards 
was spontaneously formed in almost all the great cities 
of France, self-elected and independent of the State. 
^ , , , A great and sudden revolution, however, 

Sudden abo- 

lition of the was effected in the social relations of the 
dens, August whole rural community in the kingdom ; 
^' ^7^9- anj the imposing edifice of antique Feudal- 

ism was thrown down in a moment, and laid in the dust. 
One or two nobles, on the Liberal side, having drawn a 
frightful picture of feudal abuses, the Assembly, in spite 
of a few protests, started to its feet and declared, almost 
to a man, that this state of abominations should cease ; 
and resolutions were passed, in a single night, abolish- 
ing claims that had been the growth of centuries, and 
involving in a common extinction the most barbarous 
remnants of cruel serfdom, with tithes, quit-rents, and 
similar dues. The sitting closed with enthusiastic shouts, 
a Te Deum mingling in strange accompaniment ; and 
though distinctions were afterwards drawn between such 
privileges as that of the lord bathing his feet, when cold, 
in the blood of his vassals, and others of a more modern 
kind, an opposition formed by the nobles was overborne 
by an increasing majority, the Commons and lower 



1 789. States- General and National Assembly, 33 

clergy ruling the Assembly ; and a clean sweep was 
made of many just rights of property, as well as of 
much that was bad and obsolete. The ultimate fruits 
of the liberation of the soil were great and beneficial in 
the highest degree, but the immediate results may be 
easily guessed. The excesses of the peasantry were not 
lessened by the sudden annihilation of the bonds of 
ages ; and they were only put down or checked at last 
by the efforts of the middle classes in the country dis- 
tricts, alarmed at the evident progress of anarchy. 
These, too, thus found themselves with arms in their 
hands, and almost independent of any kind of rule. 

Such was France in August and Septem- October 5 and 
ber, 1789, old authority falling on all sides, ^» ^789- 
power being transferred into new hands, and want and 
disorder felt everywhere, although for the moment re- 
strained. The Court party meanwhile, scotched, but 
not killed, had been rearing its head at Versailles ; and 
rumor spread that a band of loyal nobles were about 
to take the King to Metz, and to liberate him from " re- 
bellious subjects." Troops, too, were gradually moved 
from the frontier ; and the new National Guard at Ver- 
sailles — for such a body had been "^organized — was 
treated with scorn and contempt at the palace. A senti- 
ment had been growing up in Paris, and found favor 
in- the Assembly, that the King should be removed to 
the capital ; and the feelings of the masses, irritated by 
want, had become ready for any sudden outbreak. A 
scene, which occurred in the first days of October, be- 
came the signal for a new explosion of passion. A 
party of young officers, at a banquet in the palace, 
dashed down the Tricolor from their helmets in the 
presence of the King and of his Court, at the sound of 
a well-known royahst air ; and, heated v/ith wine, and 
D 



34 States-General and National Assembly. ^ CH. ii. 

lured by the glances of courtly beauty and syren grace, 
vowed that they, at least, would not abandon the Throne, 
This second " orgie" gave rise to a remarkable demon- 
stration from Paris, though it is not easy to say who were 
its chief designers. On the morning of the 5th a proces- 
sion of women, stung with hunger, burst into the great 
Town Hall, and thence streamed over the short space 
which separates the city from Versailles, followed by 
savage and menacing crowds, and ultimately by Lafay- 
ette and his National Guard. The procession forced its 
way into the National Assembly, then discussing an un- 
favorable message from the throne, and a party of these 
strange visitors was allowed to enter the courts of the 
palace and parley with the King. Order was restored 
when Lafayette arrived, and the assemblage dispersed, 
to find exit as it could, most of the soldiers having given 
it a welcome, and the Body-guard of the King alone, a 
select detachment, having provoked ill-will. Early next 
morning a few chance shots, which struck down, un- 
happily, one or two of the people, became a forerunner 
of a general rising ; and a furious mob fell on the Body- 
guards, and penetrated the interior of the palace. Dread 
faces of passion, hunger, and crime, appeared in the 
sanctuary of the State : the Queen, half-clad, was driven 
from her chamber amid the shrieks of affrighted attend- 
ants ; and a terrible massacre would have taken place 
but for the interposition of the late French Guards, who 
shouting "We do not forget Fontenoy," rescued the 
Body-guards and the royal family. A seeming recon- 
ciliation took place afterwards ; the King presented him- 
self from the balconies ; the Queen gave her hand to 
Lafayette to kiss, and the Tricolor shone on every armed 
crest ; but the floors of the palace were drenched with 
blood, and two ghastly heads, borne aloft on pikes, 



1789. States- General and National Assembly. 35 

attested the presence of still unslaked passions. At the 
request of a deputation, peremptory though bland, Louis 
consented readily to go to Paris ; and the royal carriages, 
with the King and Queen, their children, and Madame 
Elizabeth, the fair and pious sister of the King, slowly 
trailed to the city escorted by a roaring chaos of armed 
bands, of women astride on patriotic cannon, of sa- 
vagery in its hideous or grotesque aspects. The shout, 
"We have now the baker to ourselves, the 
baker's wife, and the baker's boy," signifi- Royal Family 
cantly told what thoughts were uppermost from Vers^ltes^ 
in the hearts of the poorer mass of the mul- 
titude — by some conspiracy they had been deprived of 
bread by "aristocrats at Versailles." It was evening 
before the motley procession made its entry into the gates, 
of the Tuileries ; and when the royal party reached the 
palace, uninhabited by the House of Bourbon for yearsi 
they saw themselves surrounded by National Guards, 
and were told that regular soldiers could not approach. 
The events of these momentous days, known em- 
phatically as the 5th and 6th of October, have been 
attributed to different persons ;- but it is superfluous to 
inquire whether Mirabeau,* the Duke of Orleans, or 
Lafayette, had any part in preparing the movement. 
What is to be noted is, that the rabble of ^ 

Growing power 

Paris, though still controlled by the middle of the rabble of 

classes, had gained a great and marvellous 

victory ; royalty had, as usual, shown itself ignoble, va- 

* It is now tolerably well ascertained that the Duke of Orleans 
instigated the mob to leave Paris, and attack the Palace. In a 
letter discovered after his death he directed a banker not to pay the 
money which had been agreed on as the price of the blood of the 
King. " L'argent," so he wrote, " n'est point gagn6, le marmot 
vit encore." Mirabeau and Lafayette seem to have been innocent. 



36 The Constitution of ii^o-Y. ch. in. 

cillating, and amiably weak ; and the illusions of power, 
once feared and august, had been dissipated like the 
idlest of dreams. Since that day Versailles has been a 
national museum, and for a time a ruin ; it has sheltered 
legions of German invaders, and heard the wailing cry 
of a conquered Nation ; but never again has it been the 
abode of a Prince wielding the sovereignty of France. 



summer of 
1791 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CONSTITUTION OF 179O-I, 

The next phase of the French Revolu- 
Character of ^-^j^ ,^^^ ^^ ^^^ Compared to the watery 
from the spacc, Comparatively level, yet broken and 

autumn of ,,.11 ^ • 

1789 to the tossed, and agitated by uncertam currents, 
which is seen occasionally between moun- 
tainous waves during the pauses of a tre- 
mendous storm. From the autumn of 1789 to the summer 
of 1 79 1 — a period of nearly two years — no events oc- 
curred of such obvious significance as the rising of Paris, 
the siege of the Bastille, the insurrection in the Provinces, 
and the 5th and 6th of October ; and though elements 
of trouble gathered and grew apparent to a discerning 
eye, they did not yet form into a general outbreak. 
Some terrible crimes were, indeed, perpetrated under 
the influence of local passion or revenge ; one or twa 
conspiracies, real or feigned, were attempted by parti- 
sans of the Court; the emigration of the Nobles in- 
creased; all along the frontier rumors were heard of 
counter-revolution and even of invasion ; the attitude of 



1 7 89-9 1 . The Constitution ^1790-1. 3 7 

foreign Powers became doubtful; and throughout France, 
from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, innovation showed 
itself in a thousand forms ; the hearts of men throbbed 
with the desire for change, and knavery and ambition 
appealed too successfully to the hearts, the jealousies, 
and the fears of the multitude. Nevertheless, the sur- 
face of things at least appeared for a time less disturbed 
than before ; some reforms were attended with perma- 
nent good, and others with benefits for the moment ; the P 
dangerous pressure of popular distress, so evident in 
1789, lessened ; and it seemed to thousands as if the 
Revolution was tending to happiness, peace, and pro- 
gress. The King had been separated from the faction 
of the Court ; the National Assembly was supreme ; the 
removal of the feudal burdens from the soil improved 
agriculture as if by magic ; France enjoyed such 
liberty as she had never enjoyed before ; the Middle 
class and the National Guards seemed sufficient to keep 
mob violence down ; signs of increasing opulence were 
not wanting ; and though disorder was still abroad, and 
demagogues held formidable sway, and the echoes of 
strife and discord were heard, were not symptoms like 
these inevitable at a crisis of great and rapid change, 
and would they not before long disappear ? The issue 
was to be otherwise ; and this brief moment of compara- 
tive calm was to see France brought nearer to the abyss, 
to accelerate the dangers collecting around, and ulti- 
mately to give renewed force to revolutionary passion 
and suspicion. Yet History rejects the false creed of 
fatalism, though she admits the stupendous power of 
circumstance ; and while large allowances must, in jus- 
tice, be made for inexperience and the difficulties of the 
situation, it is not the less, in our judgment, true that 
had France found statesmen among her rulers, had her 



38 The Constitution of \i()o-\. ch. hi. 

aristocracy been less spoiled by arrogance, and less 
morally worthless, had her Sovereign and those around 
him been less unwise, the course of events would have 
been very different. 

After the scenes of the 5th and 6th of 
Ass^embf °°^ October, the National Assembly returned to 
begins to the task of re-modelling the institutions of 

Constitution. France, which had been, almost from the 
first, its mission. Much that it accomplished 
during the following months, although done with pre- 
cipitate haste, was a great improvement on the old state 
of things, and has since had beneficent re- 
forms! ^^' suits.* Old barbarous penalties were abol- 
ished; seignorial jurisdiction disappeared; 
internal trade, which had been crippled by mischievous 
restrictions, was set free; a project was formed to fuse 
into a Code the medley of written laws and customs, 
conflicting and obscure, which prevailed in the king- 
dom ; the monopolies and exclusive guilds of the towns 
vanished with the feudal charges on the land ; and, 
above all, religious toleration was proclaimed, the whole 
system of taxation was reformed, and the iniquitous ex- 
emptions of the privileged orders in this particular were 
removed. These measures, and many others of the 
kind, were salutary, and, for the most part, just ; and 
Englishmen may, in these respects, agree with those 
Frenchmen who extol "the immortal principle of 1789." 
But the work of the Assembly, considered as a whole, 

* A learned account of the Constitution of 1 790-1 will be found 
in Professor Von Sybel's History of the French Eevolutian. 
Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, remain, however, 
the best and most profound commentary on the work of the Na- 
tional Assembly and its tendencies. Many of the observations of 
the great philosophic statesman have proved prophetic. 



1789-91- I'h^ Constitution of 1 790-1. 39 

was marked by a passion for mere theory, and a perilous 
disregard of facts ; and it displayed itself in wild inno- 
vations which irritated and exasperated „,., , 

Wild and pre- 

many classes, made settled government at dpUate inno- 
best precarious, and added strength to revo- 
lutionary tendencies. Instead of addressing itself simply 
to mitigating the political and social grievances of which 
such a multitude existed in France, it had begun its 
labors by a grand Declaration — at once imposing, dan- 
gerous, and untrue — of what it regarded as the Rights 
of Man ; and it proceeded to carry out these 
principles, more or less faithfully, in its sub- j^^n. ^^ ^ ° 
sequent legislation. Like the feudal exac- 
tions, the immense property of the Church, and of a 
number of other corporations, was confiscated with a 
stroke of the pen ; and though compensa- p 1= • r 
tion was promised to existing interests, it Church and 
was to a great extent illusory. Soon after- perty.'^^Aiboii- 
wards titles of honor were suppressed, how- ^^'^^ °^ tithes. 
ever dignified or historical ; places, offices, and privileges 
were abolished with little reflection, or even justice ; and 
it was announced as an eternal truth that Frenchmen 
were essentially equal, notwithstanding the 
inequalities that must exist in an ancient, or 
indeed in any community. In addition, an extraordinary 
change was made in the local constitution of the King- 
dom ; the old Provinces were effaced from 
the map, with their complex variety of rights tranrformed 
and immunities ; the local associations thus JJJent?^^*'^'* 
formed were destroyed, and the Kingdom 
was parcelled out into new divisions, ever since known 
by the name of Departments, each with a perfectly uni- 
form organization and distribution of local authority. 
Having thus levelled, in a few months, almost every 



40 The Constitution of 1 790-1. CH. in. 

.,, ^ , institution of old France, the Assembly 

Character of ^ 

the new Consti- began the work of creating a new Con- 
ing defectsf ^"^ stitution for the transformed Kingdom. The 
Monarchy was continued and liberally en- 
dowed ; but it was shorn of most of its ancient preroga- 
tives, and reduced to a very feeble Executive ; and 
while it obtained a perilous veto on the resolutions and 
acts of the Legislature, it was separated from that 
power, and placed in opposition to it, by the exclusion 
of the Ministers of the Crown from seats and votes in 
the National Assembly. The Legislature was composed 
of a Legislative Assembly, formed of a single Chamber 
alone, in theory supreme, and almost absolute ; but, as 
we have seen, it was liable to come in conflict with the 
Crown, and it had less authority than might be sup- 
posed, for it was elected by a vote not truly popular, 
and subordinate powers were allowed to possess a very 
large part of the rights of Sovereignty which it ought to 
have divided with the King. This last portion of the 
scheme was very striking, -and was the one, too, that 
most caused alarm among distant political observers. 
Too great centralization having been one of the chief 
complaints against the ancient Monarchy, this evil was 
met by a radical reform, which also fell in with the new 
doctrines of equality and the supremacy of the people 
— ^two main tenets of the Rights of Man. The towns 
received extraordinary powers ; their municipalities had 
complete control over the National Guards to be elected 
in them, and possessed many other functions of Govern- 
ment ; and Paris, by these means, became almost a 
separate Commonwealth, independent of the State, and 
directing a vast military force. The same system was 
applied to the country ; every Department was formed 
into petty divisions, each with its National Guards, and 



1789-9 1- The Cofistitutwn of 1 "J ()o-i. 41 

a considerable share of what is usually the power of the 
government ; and in each Department a higher ad- 
ministration was entrusted with a kind of general super- 
intendence. In every separate centre in town and 
country this immense authority was for the most part 
wielded by men chosen by a scarcely restricted suffrage ; 
and Burke's saying was strictly correct, " that France 
was split into thousands of Republics, with Paris pre- 
dominating and queen of all." With respect to other 
institutions of the State, the appointment of nearly all 
civil functionaries, judicial and otherwise, was taken 
from the Crown, and abandoned to a like popular elec- 
tion ; and the same principle was also applied to the 
great and venerable institution of the Church, already 
deprived of its vast estates, though the election of 
bishops and priests by their flocks interfered directly 
with Roman Catholic discipline, and probably, too, with 
religious dogma. As for the Army, it was also in a great 
degree removed out of the hands of the King ; and 
while unjust privileges were swept away, it was organized 
on a democratic model, commissions and similar rights 
being abolished. 

Many acts, too, of the National Assem- Administra- 
bly administration of affairs were unwise ti^e measures. 
and dangerous. Notwithstanding the opposition of 
Necker, who, though hardly a statesman, understood 
finance, it was resolved to sell the lands of the Church 
to procure funds for the necessities of the State; and the 
deficit, which was increasing rapidly, was met by an in- 
convertible currency of paper, secured on the lands to 
be sold. This expedient, borrowed to some extent, from 
precedents set by the old Monarchy, and indeed by other 
governments in distress, and not wholly mischievous 
under careful restrictions, was carried out with injudi- 



42 The Constitution of I'jgo-i. CH. iii. 

Assignats. cious rccklessness. The Assignats, as the 
new notes were called, seemed a mine of inexhaustible 
wealth, and they were issued in quantities which, from 
the first moment, disturbed the relations of life and com- 
merce, though they created a show of brisk trade for a 
False system time. In matters of taxation the Assem- 
of taxation. ^^^^ ^^^^ exceeded the bounds of reason 

and justice ; exemptions previously enjoyed by the rich 
were now indirectly extended to the poor; wealthy 
owners of land were too heavily burdened, while the 
populace of the towns went scot free; and though 
little wrong was as yet done, the example was set of 
future injustice. Very large sums also, belonging to the 
Undue favor State, Were advanced to the Commune of 

shown to T-> • • • • , r -111 

Paris. Pans, now rismg mto formidable power, at 

an interest much below the market rate ; and thus the 
Nation was made to minister to the needs of one favored 
portion of it — a perilous and iniquitous principle. With 
the assent of the Assembly, the funds so obtained were 
lavishly squandered in giving relief to the poor of the 
capital in the most improvident ways — in buying bread 
dear and reselling it cheap, and in finding fanciful em- 
ployment for artizans out of work. The result, of 
course, was to attract to Paris many thousands of the 
lowest class of rabble, and to add them to the . scum of 
the city ; and, indeed,* not a few of the communistic 
theories which predominated during the Reign of Terror, 
and have ever since been a curse to France, may be 
traced, partly in operation, at this time. 

It is easy to point out on what erroneous principles 
the Assembly founded a large part of its work, and 

* Professor Von Sybel'^ History, book II., chapter iv., has 
brought out clearly the Communistic tendencies of part of the le- 
gislation of the National Assembly. 



1789-91- The Constitution of \']()o-\. 43 

time was soon to show what a series of ills thJJgd^rJtjon^ 
inevitably resulted from much that it had July 14, i79'3- 

, jL . . r 1 Enthusiasm in 

done. But the attractive nature of the Europe. 
doctrines it laid down, and the generous liberality of 
many of its speakers, created enthusiasm for the mo- 
ment ; and the declaration of the Rights of Man aroused 
feelings of exultation and delight, not only in France, 
but throughout Europe. On the first anniversary of the 
fall of the Bastille, and before the Constitution had been 
finished, Paris witnessed a scene which vividly ex- 
pressed the sentiments with which millions welcomed 
what seemed the inauguration of a new age of gold. A 
great national holiday was kept ; and, amidst multitudes 
of applauding spectators, deputations from every De- 
partment in France, headed by the authorities of the 
thronging capital, defiled in procession to the broad 
space known as the Field of Mars, along the banks of 
the Seine. An immense amphitheatre had been con- 
structed, and decorated with extraordinary pomp ; and 
here, in the presence of a splendid Court, of the Na- 
tional Assembly, and of the municipalities of the realm, 
and in the sight of a great assemblage surging to and 
fro with throbbing excitement, the King took an oath 
that he would faithfully respect the order of things that 
was being established, while incense streamed from 
high-raised altars, and the ranks of seventy thousand 
National Guards burst into loud cheers and triumphant 
music ; and even the Queen, sharing in the passion of 
the hour, and radiant with beauty, lifted up in her arms 
the young child who was to be the future chief of a dis- 
enthralled and regenerate people — unconscious happily 
of the dark clouds that were gathering already over so 
many victims. The following week was gay with those 
brilliant displays which Paris knows how to arrange so 



44 The Constitution of 1 "J go-i. CH. in. 

well; flowery arches covered the site of the Bastille, 
fountains ran wine, and the night blazed with fire ; and 
the far-extending influence of France was attested by- 
enthusiastic deputations of "friends of liberty" from 
many parts of Europe, hailing the dawn of an era of 
freedom and peace. 
_ ., The work, however, of the National As- 

Jl,vil conse- 
quences of sembly developed some of its effects ere 

signs of disorder long. The abolition of titles of honor filled 
and anarchy. ^^ ^^^ n^easure of the anger of the Nobles ; 
the confiscation of the property of the Church ; above 
all, the law as to the election of priests, known as the 
Civil Constitution of the Clergy, shocked all religious or 
superstitious minds. The reduction of the old rights of 
the Crown, and the antagonism created by the absurd 
severance of the Legislative and Executive powers, en- 
feebled the State, and caused the King his Ministers, 
and the Assembly to clash; and Necker and all his 
associates but one were dismissed, and replaced by men 
of an inferior stamp. The extinction of privilege, too, 
in the Army, provoked discontent among the whole 
class of officers ; and yet it did not much please the 
men, for no great immediate benefits followed, and their 
superiors stood more than ever aloof. Meanwhile the 
substance of power began to pass to the masses to an 
alarming extent, through the regulations as to the 
National Guards and the administrative services of the 
Kingdom ; and though they did not yet know their 
strength, leaders were not wanting to teach the lesson. 
The ascendency of Paris, too, became more decided 
than it had ever been ; and the dislocation of authority 
caused by the extreme weakening of the central govern- 
ment disintegrated France to a great degree, and gave 
a wide scope to low popular influence. It is easy to 



1 789-91' The Constitution of \']()o-\. 45 

imagine the results in a country torn by deep divisions 
of class, where an ancient throne had been suddenly 
weakened, where nothing was permanent, fixed, and 
established, and where anarchy and hcense, though for 
the moment checked, had made themselves so perilous- 
ly apparent. The emigration of the Nobles, which had 
become very general from the 5th and 6th of October, 
went on in daily augmenting numbers ; and, in a short 
time, the frontiers were edged with bands of exiles 
breathing vengeance and hatred. In many districts the 
priests denounced as sacrilege what had been done to 
the Church, divided the peasantry, and preached a cru- 
sade against what they called the atheist towns ; and 
angry mutinies broke out in the Army, which left be- 
hind savage and relentless feelings. The relations be- 
tween the King and the Assembly, too, became strained, 
if not hostile, at every turn of affairs, to the detriment 
of anything like good government ; and while Louis 
sunk into a mere puppet, the Assembly, controlled in a 
great measure by demagogues and the pampered mobs 
of Paris, felt authority gradually slipping from it. Thus 
anarchy was not restrained from above, while, so. to 
speak, it was organized from below ; and the rein was 
thrown on the necks of a people long misgoverned, and 
whose excitable nature had been aroused by every kind 
of stimulant. As yet, however, the mere popular forces 
did not break out in general disorder ; but their increa- 
sing influence was plainly seen in the ascendency gained 
by brawling demagogues, in an immense diffusion of 
cheap and bad journals, and in the multiplying of asso- 
ciations of an extreme type in politics. One ^, , 

■' *■ *■ The Jacobin - 

of these societies, sprung from a small be- and other 

ginning, had established itself in an old 

convent in Paris ; and here, growing into larger num- 



46 The Constitution of \*^()o-i, CH. iii. 

bers, it held frequent sittings, at which the members dis- 
cussed the acts of the National Assembly, or made 
vehement addresses to the people. The most ardent 
reformers of the Commune were prominent in it, and 
were wont to report to the populace, in the forty-eight 
sections into which the capital had been divided, what- 
ever had been decided or done ; and the society had 
affiliated to it a great number of bodies of the same cha- 
racter throughout the principal cities of France. Such 
was the origin of the famous Jacobin Club — a dread 
name in the drama of the Revolution. 
Weakness of ^^ ^^7 appear strange that the powerful 

Conservative interests which were represented in the 

elements in ^ 

the Assembly. National Assembly did not contend better 
against these immense changes ; and that the Commons, 
of whom very few had genuine sympathy with the lowest 
classes, should have given such free scope to anarchic 
disorder. But the Crown and the Nobles were divided 
from each other ; the Nobles were divided among them- 
selves ; the prelates and lower clergy were not friends ; 
and many of the lay and clerical aristocracy were unwise 
enough to join the ranks of the emigrants. Of the Con- 
servative Nobles and prelates who remained in the 
Assembly, few had anything like talent ; and the chief 
defenders of the ancient rites of the throne of Henry 
IV., and of the Rohans and Mortemarts, were a young dra- 
goon officer and a simple abbe, the impetuous Cazal^s,* 

* Cazal^s, the brilliant military champion of Conservatism in 
the Assembly, was born in 1752. He has been well described as 
a " chivalrous soldier, sans peur et reproche ;" and Mirabeau said 
'of him that" if the knowledge of Cazal6s equalled the charms of 
his elocution, all efforts would be ineffectual against him." But 
he was rash to a fault, and seems to have had as little judgment as 
information. 



1 789-9 1 . The Constitution of \i^o-\. 47 

the subtle Maury.* As for the reforming Nobles, 
among whom were several men of fine parts, many- 
doubtless went further than they wished ; but some 
were carried away by the false philosophy in fashion ; 
others bid against each other for popular support, 
and they never united in a rational policy of what 
might have been called constitutional reform. The 
Commons, too, were mere tyros in politics, though many 
were apt at the tongue and pen ; they were also full of 
the new doctrines, and could not see what innovations 
were unsafe ; and they were largely influenced by a 
strong dislike of the old institutions and the privileged 
orders. Add the characteristics of the French intellect, 
addicted to system, and to carry out ideas, without re- 
gard to facts, to their extreme consequences ; add the 
impetuous and ardent French temperament, often wildly 
generous and sentimental ; and we shall see how the 
Assembly, without any intention, prepared the way for 
a part, at least, of what followed. Yet what contributed 
most, perhaps, to the annihilation of the noble classes, 
and encouraged measures of a revolutionary tendency, 
was the pitiful conduct of those best known by the still 
dishonorable name of itnigr6s. In a few months the 
great majority of the aristocracy of France had fled the 
kingdom, abandoning the throne around which they 
had stood, breathing maledictions against a contempt- 
uous Nation, as arrogant as ever in the impotence of 
want, and thinking only of a counter-revolution that 

* The Abb6 Maury was born in 1746. He had been versed in 
ecclesiastical and political affairs before the Revolution, and de- 
fended with skill and eloquence the cause of the Monarchy, the 
Church, and the Nobles in the National Assembly, He became 
'afterwards an Archbishop and a Cardinal, and died in 1817, having 
witnessed the Bourbon Restoration. 



48 The Constitution of I'jgo-i. ch. hi. 

would cover the natal soil with blood. History makes 
allowances for these men; for they were the victims of 
an evil order of things ; but France could not make 
allowances for them at a crisis of agitation and passion ; 
and their utter want of patriotism and of sound feeling 
made thousands believe that the state of society which 
had bred such creatures ought to be swept away, 

Attem ts of ^^^ "^^^' l^o^ever, in the National As- 
Mirabeau to scmbly, saw distinctly whither events were 

chcclc tflG QIS" 

organization of tending. The life of Mirabeau was stained 
the State. ^-^j^ vices ; and his public career was deeply 

marked by reckless ambition and perhaps crime. But 
he added keen insight and strong common sense to elo- 
quence of extraordinary force ; he was not the dupe of 
deceptive theories, and he perceived that France was 
falling into confusion. He had protested against the 
destruction of the Church and Nobles as leading to civil 
war ; he had declared that it was dangerous and unwise 
to refuse the ministers of the Crown a seat in the As- 
sembly ; and he summed up a great truth in the words 
that what France required was a firm Executive to keep 
anarchy down and to maintain order. We cannot affirm 
whether he had thought out a scheme of Constitutional 
Monarchy for France; but as early as 1790 he made 
overtures to the Court, and he had more than one inter- 
view with the Queen, to whose " force of character " he 
did admiring homage. His projects were to remove the 
King to a town in the interior of France, to rally around 
him the loyal part of the Army, and to summon a -new 
Assembly, which would undo what was most mischie- 
vous in the work of the old; and he promised that he 
would answer for thirty-six Departments, and expressed 
a strong hope that the middle classes, alarmed at the 
prospect of mob rule, would throw their weight on the 



1 789-9 1 • The Constitution of I'jgo-i. 49 

side of the Monarchy. The Court, however, vacillating 
land suspicious, would not trust the proud man of genius; 
' and Mirabeau could not obtain the adhesion of Bouille, 
the most popular chief of the Army, and of Lafayette, 
all powerful with the National Guards, whose co-opera- 
\tion he deemed necessary. Death came to. put an end 
to his hopes and fears ; he expired in April, „. , , 
1791, and with him perished the best chance 
of arresting the Revolution already at hand. 

Meanwhile, the attitude of neighboring States had be- 
come uncertain, if not threatening, and 
sounds of counter-revolution, and even of jng attitude 
war, had begun to gather- definite shape, po^ers!^"^ 
The old Monarchies and Aristocracies of 
Europe were naturally alarmed at what they called 
French principles ; and Prussia and Austria suddenly 
composed their feuds, while, in England, the House of 
Commons rang with cheers at Rurke's invectives against 
the Assembly. The hnigrts, too, were in every Court, 
soliciting aid and making empty noise ; and a little 
Army of Seigneurs formed along the Rhine, which they 
boasted was only the advanced guard of a crusade in 
their holy cause. The death of Mirabeau at this con- 
juncture made the King and Queen despair of obtain- 
ing deliverance through French help alone ; and they 
began wistfully to look abroad, and to dabble in those 
foreign intrigues which were to end in the 
destruction of both.* Both, indeed, feared projecS^of"^ 
and disliked the emigres ; nor did either, andOueen 
as yet at least,- think of restoring the Mon- 

* A complete picture of the dealings of Louis XVL and Marie 

Antoinette with Foreign Powers during the Revolution, and indeed 

of the life and conduct of the Royal Family at this crisis, will be 

found in the collection of Letters of Louis XVI., JIarie Antoinette, 

E 



50 The Constitution of i']go-i. ch, hi. 

archy by foreign bayonets. But, not to speak of many 
other grievances, the conscience of Louis was wounded 
to the quick by what he thought was sacrilege done to 
the Church ; Marie Antoinette resenting the echpse of 
the throne, and shghts offered to her consort and her- 
self; and the condition of France appeared to both alike 
something unintelligible and beyond endurance. A 
project was formed that the King should escape, should 
place himself in the hands of an Austrian detachment, 
to be marched quietly within the frontier, and should 
make an appeal to all loyal Frenchmen ; and no doubt 
can remain but that a violent change in the Constitution 
was in contemplation to be effected by the " friends of 
the Monarchy." The idea of calling in Austrian troops 
shows that the Queen, a daughter of the House of Aus- 
tria, was the chief author of this perilous scheme ; and 
Bouille, who was in command in Lorraine, was let into 
the secret, and promised assistance. On the night of 
June 20, 1 791, the Royal Family set off, 
to'v'arili?* eluding the guard at the gates of the Tuiler- 

nes, June jgg ^^^^^ King having left a declaration be- 

20, 1791. ~ ° ^ 

hind, in which he disavowed all that had 

been done in his name, and with his assent, since " he 
had been in durance in Paris," and denounced the con- 
stitution he had sworn to maintain. The carriage ar- 
rived safely next day at ChS,lons, but was stopped at last 
at the little town of Varennes, a postmaster called 

et Madame Elizabeth, edited by M. Feuillet de Conches. Some of 
these documents may be apocryphal, but enough of undoubted 
genuineness remains to show that the suspicions entertained by the 
popular leaders of the King and Queen were in part justified. The 
collection throws also much light on the policy of the Continental 
Courts from 1790 to 1793, and the dissertations and notes of the 
editor are valuable and interesting. 



1 789-9 1 . The Constitution of 1 790-1 . 5 1 

Drouet having recognized the King, and given the mu- 
nicipality a hasty warning. A parley took place, the 
ill-fated Monarch, as usual, showing ignoble weakness : 
but the party would have escaped had not a detachment 
sent by Bouille shouted " the Nation for ever," and re- 
fused to obey their officers' orders. Meanwhile, at the 
news of the flight of the King, the Assembly decreed 
the recall of the fugitives, and assumed the functions of 
complete sovereignty, and commissioners were des- 
patched to enforce its mandates. On the arrival of the 
delegates at Varennes, Louis instantly yielded, in spite 
of the entreaties of the Queen : he seemed, it is said, " to 
have been most anxious about finishing his morning 
meal." The Royal captives were eight days returning, 
every village looking on at the sorry sight : and the 
procession threaded the streets of Paris amidst a multi- 
tude silent, and with covered heads. Petion, one of the 
commissioners, had been rude and forward : another, 
Barnave, had been fascinated by the Queen, and had 
shown that his feelings had been deeply touched. Each 
of these men were to go different ways in the dark drama 
of future events, in consequence, perhaps, of this acci- 
dent in their lives. 

Napoleon said, many years afterwards, 
that this abortive attempt sealed the fate of of th^^evem.^ 
the Monarchy; it at least caused general 
indignation and distrust. The Nation did not, indeed, 
know the whole truth ; but the protest of the King against 
the constitution was read by many in the worst light, and 
what was really feebleness was thought treachery. The 
demagogues swarming in France made the most of the 
chance which had fallen to them ; angry meetings were 
held in many places, and appealed to in threatening and 



52 The Constitution of \']()o-\. ch. hi. 

wild language ; the vile name of Marat* emerged from 
darkness, and those of Danton,f Robespierre,! and others, 

* Jean Paul Marat, bom in 1744, was bred a physician, and after- 
wards became a veterinary surgeon in the stables of the Count of 
Artois. Though unsuccessful in his profession, he was not without 
parts, and at the beginning of the Revolution he became editor of 
the Aini du Peuple, one of the most violent journals of the time. 
In this evil production he systematically advocated the destruction 
of the upper and middle classes, and the subversion of property. 
Though at first decried even by the demagogies, he by degrees 
emerged from obscurity, and became one of the most prominent 
and repulsive figures of the Reign of Terror. He was assassinated 
in 1793. 

I George Jacques Danton was bom in 1759. This remarkable 
man was brought up to be a lawyer, and plunged with characteristic 
energy into the vortex of the Revolution. Mirabeau soon dis- 
covered his talents, and he quickly became the most effective of the 
mob leaders of Parie. He rose to be the most conspicuous actor 
in the Revolution during the first part of the Reign of Terror ; and 
though his crimes were many, his courage and patriotism plead for 
him. He labored also, at the risk of his life, to reconcile parties, 
and to stop the tyranny of the Committee of Public Safety, and 
was guillotined in 1793. 

X Francois Maximilian Robespierre was, like Danton, bom in 
1759, and bred an advocate. He was one of the few extreme Re- 
volutionists who obtained a seat in the States-General ; and for 
some months he could not get a hearing when he attempted to 
speak, though Mirabeau predicted that his earnestness would raise 
him into notice. He became one of the chief of the Parisian de- 
magogues, winning his way, not by eloquence or boldness, but by 
a reputation for integrity, and ultimately stood at the head of the 
most frightful Dictatorship Europe ever saw. Opinions are still 
divided whether he was a mere bloodthirsty tyrant or a merciless 
fanatic ; I incline to the second view. Mr. Carlylehas thus graphi- 
cally described Robespierre :^—" Who of these Six Hundred may 
be the meanest? Shall we say that anxious, slight, ineffectual- 
looking man, under thirty, in spectacles, his eyes, were the glasses 



1789-91' The Constitution of I'] go~i, 53 

soon to become by-words of universal terror, were re- 
peatedly in the mouths of the populace, and even the 
word "republic" was heard in the Assembly. That 
body, besides, had pronounced itself the Government 
during the flight to Varennes ; the King and Queen were 
so completely prisoners that they could hardly leave the 
courts of the Tuileries ; and captive royalty seemed dead 
to the multitude. Nevertheless order was still maintained, 
at least to a considerable extent ; some of the mob-leaders 
in Paris were silenced for a time ; and an attempt at an 
outbreak was put down by Bailly and Lafayette, not 
without blood. Signs of returning consciousness, too, 
were now and then seen ; Louis and his consort were 
more than once greeted with cheers when allowed to 
show themselves at the opera ; and, notwithstanding all 
that had taken place, generous hearts felt for their fallen 
splendor. A kind of instinct, also, told the middle 
classes that an hour of trial and peril was near ; and at 
the distant sound of the approaching tempest thousands 
turned their eyes towards that tottering throne, which, 
burdened as it was with evil memories, seemed at least 
a rallying point against anarchy. 

off, troubled, careful; with upturned face, snuffing dimly the uncer- 
tain future times ; complexion of multiplex atrabiliar color, the 
final shade of which may be the pale sea-green ?" 



54 The Legislative Assembly. CH. iv. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY. 

Character of ^^ ^^^^ "^^^ reached a period when the 
the period from elements of disorder, comparatively quies- 

the summer of . . , j ~\. 

1791 to August cent for a time m France, were to burst out 
10, 1792- y^\^ a force never seen before ; when the 

consequences of her ancient ills and discords, and the 
vices of her new made institutions, were to reveal them- 
selves with portentous distinctness ; and when popular 
passion, given sudden strength in the weakness of an 
ill-organized State, and quickened by the most powerful 
incitements, was to overthrow the already unstable 
Monarchy, and to lead ere long to a terrific catastrophe. 
These events, fraught with momentous issues, were 
again to give proof how deep-seated were many of the 
mischiefs afflicting the kingdom, were again to bear 
witness to the want of wisdom of the higher orders and 
the unhappy Sovereign, were to bring out again in too 
clear relief the faults of the work of the National Assem- 
bly, and the numberless resulting perils and evils ; and 
were, too, to show by a fresh awful example how power 
may suddenly fall away from classes which seemed in 
possession of it; and how, in France especially, per- 
haps, a vehement, reckless, and daring minority, may, 
in certain circumstances, overbear opposition, and rise 
into powerful and commanding authority. The causes, 
however, of these phenomena were not to be sought 
within France alone ; they were largely due to the in- 
fluences external to her ; and but for elements alien 



1791- The Legislative Assembly. 55 

from it in the main, and arousing national excitement to 
frenzy, the course of the Revolution would, we think, 
have been different. 
A few weeks after the flight to Varennes ^ 

1 . Deceptive 

the National Assembly dissolved itself, calm; meeting 
having declared that its great work was gisiatlv^As-^" 
done, and that it left " France, as it hoped, '^^^^^y- 
regenerate." The King, having with apparent readiness 
accepted the Constitution he had labored to subvert, and 
a general amnesty having been proclaimed, the political 
sky seemed for the moment brightening ; and the royal 
family were seen in Paris in splendor, and what it was 
assured was liberty. The new Legislative Assembly 
met in October ; and, as the elections had been tolera- 
bly quiet, many began to hope that "the glorious gains" 
of the two preceding years were at last realized, and 
that what had been done was finally established. One 
circumstance, however, was not in favor of the political 
experience of the fresh made Legislature. The National 
Assembly, by a self-denying ordinance, had excluded 
its members from its successors' ranks ; and thus the 
Representative Body of 1791 was as ill-trained as the 
States-General had been. The Legislative Assembly, 
of course, contained very few members of the late Noble 
Order, and was chiefly composed from the Middle 
classes ; but its prevailing wish wa«, at first at least, to 
uphold the constitution of 1790-1, though a republican 
party existed in it, and it was desirous of trying its hand 
at reform. It numbered 750 deputies, di- 
vided into a Right, a Centre, and a Left thS^Body.^'^ °^ 
party ; the first conservative, the last radi- 
cal, and the second, which was very numerous, waver- 
ing between them. The Left, in the political slang of 
the day, became known as the Mountain, and the Cen- 



56 The Legislative Assembly. CH. iv. 

tre as the Plain ; and these odd nick-names were, before 
long, to acquire a strange and world-wide celebrity. 
Taken altogether, the Legislative Assembly was inferior 
in brilliancy to its predecessor ; and it had no member 
of the powers of Mirabeau. It was not, however, with- 
out men of fine parts ; and one knot of deputies, known 
afterwards by the name of the Department from which 
many of them came — the Gironde, part of 

TheGironde. ^, \.^ • r r- i, 

the old Provmce of Guyenne — became con- 
spicuous for their persuasive eloquence, and their ar- 
dent, if not very wise enthusiasm. 

Dissensions For a brief space the Assembly and the 

KS^^and^the King made a sincere effort to work well to- 
Assembly, gether. Louis composed his ministry of 
moderate men, known as Feuillants, from a club of that 
name, set up to counteract the power of the Jacobins ; 
and some of the reformers in the National Assembly, 
among whom Barnave was conspicuous, endeavored to 
aid the Court with their counsels. From the first mo- 
ment, however, the King had been vexed by slights put 
on him by some deputies in return for want, of courtesy 
on his part ; irritation was aroused by what was thought 
an extravagant augmentation of the military force 
allowed the Sovereign by the Constitution, and by the 
refusal of Court lords and ladies to accept places in the 
newly-arranged household; and causes of dissension 
quickly multiplied, and were aggravated by the absurd 
provision which, by excluding them from seats in it, 
made the Ministers of the Crown appear dictators and 
strangers to the Assembly. Meanwhile the acceptance 
pf the Constitution had stirred the Stnigrh to increased 
wrath ; and though their army as yet made no signs of 
life — for noble officers could get few soldiers, and would 
not stoop to serve in the ranks — the brothers of the 



1 791* The Legislative Assembly. 57 

King uttered vehement protests against the acts of the 
National Assembly, and their emissaries swarmed across 
the Rhine, preaching discord and trying to excite 
trouble. The movement was largely se- Disorders in 
conded by the priests, who had very gener ^^ Provinces, 
rally refused to take an oath to respect the new order of 
things in the Church ; and it created not a little distur- 
bance, ancient sympathies and religious feelings com- 
ing into collision, in many Departments with the senti- 
ments and instincts of the Revolution. Religious and 
Some frightful disorders, too, broke out at JfeT^ Massa- 
Avignon, for ages a fief of the Pope, but an- ere at Avignon 
nexed by the National Assembly to France. 1791) 
The French and papal parties rose against each other, 
and a foul and hideous massacre took place ; several 
towns in the South and South-east were convulsed by 
the strife of angry factions already approaching a civil 
war ; and bands of armed and houseless vagrants 
prowled about the kingdom in many districts, levying 
black mail, and doing all kinds of outrage. A feeling 
of general discontent, besides, grew visible ere long in 
the great cities, and the populace was occasionally on 
the verge of insurrection. The assignats had quickened 
trade at first, but the reckless use of paper money pro- 
duced before long the inevitable results ; and the prices 
of everything rose rapidly, while, in the unsettled posi- 
tion of affairs, employers became alarmed and cautious. 
The millions of artizans and workmen felt the necessa- 
ries of life grow dearer and dearer, while their wages 
did not increase in proportion, and there were many to 
tell them that this was caused by the selfishness of the 
rich and of jobbing speculators. Besides, the Revolu- 
tion, it was said, was over ; yet, after all, what had it 
done for the poor, how had it realized the fair visions 



5S The Legislative Assembly. ch. iv. 

held before the multitude by specious orators ? The 
Middle classes were, no doubt, better off; but the Mid- 
dle classes were as hard as the nobles ; and was the 
end to be a mere change of masters ? These danger- 
ous sentiments were fanned and excited by the Jacobins 
in Paris and kindred societies ; and the fires of agitation 
spread far and wide, at first smouldering and irregular, 
but gradually gathering volume and force. 

These disorders were not calculated to 
directly better the relations of the Assembly and the 

A^sembly^^ King, or to give repose to the national 

mind; and the elements of mischief soon 
became more active. The Assembly, at different 
times in the winter, passed severe decrees against 
hnigrts and priests ; and although these may have been 
unnecessarily harsh, the occasion justified strict precau- 
tions. Louis, however, possibly with a kindly sentiment, 

but certainly with extreme imprudence, af- 

Nov. 1791. 

fixed his veto to these measures, and thus 
directly opposed the will of the Legislature, although ex- 
pressed in a decisive manner, and that, too, on a most 
important occasion. The grievance was aggravated by 
the fact that the King was continually in communication 
with his brothers, at least, in the Emigre camp ; and that, 
parading his dislike of the new settlement of the Church, 
he had chosen his chaplains and confessors from priests 
who had refused to take the constitutional oath. We 
can readily conceive the results of this folly — which 
Englishmen would not have borne for a day, though 
trained for centuries in political life — in the case of a 
Legislature without experience, and exceedingly jealous 
of its new rights, and of a nation vehement, ignorant, 
and distracted. The Assembly, hitherto inclined to act 
with the King, became full of anger and suspicious 



1 79 1- The Legislative Assembly, 59 

fears ; many moderate men fell off from the , ,. 

Indignation 

Court; and the Legislature being for the oftheAssem- 
time baffled, the general indignation found ^' 
vent in passionate outbreaks of popular wrath. The 
Commune of Paris besieged the Assembly with petitions 
signed by its united sections ; the Jacobin Club, and one 
even more violent, the Cordeliers, grew into increased 
importance ; and the Jacobins regularly usurped the 
functions of a great deliberate body, and despatched 
emissaries to stir up the people in every part of the 
kingdom. By these means, aided by the , ^ 

affiliated clubs, and by a Press growing in the Commune 
rabid license, existing elements of discontent The Clubs 
and anger were made intense, and a general gogues!"^* 
outbui-st of passion was organized against 
the King, the Court, and even the Constitution, which it 
was asserted had proved worse than useless. Mean- 
while the masses were everywhere taught to seize and 
make use of their immense pow;er ; the machinery of 
government and of administration fell more and more 
into the hands of the populace, under the superinten- 
dence and control of demagogues; and the National 
Guards become more and more filled with what were 
called patriots, or were debauched by them. This was 
more especially the case in Paris, where, Lafayette hav- 
ing resigned his command, the National Guard had been 
remodelled, and where Bailly 'had been replaced by 
Petion, a false and artful popularity seeker, though the 
Court, with hardly intelligible silliness and spite, had 
thrown its influence into the scale on his side for the 
office of mayor against Lafayette. By this time the Na- 
tional Guard of Paris had been largely recruited from 
the lower ranks ; its officers had been in some degree 
changed ; and it was divided in mind and general senti- 



^° The Legislative Assembly. CH. iv. 

hient. It was still, on the whole, on the side of order; 
but its discipline had been much relaxed ; and in the 
contest between the Assembly and the King its sympa- 
thies were with the popular cause. 

Menaces of ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ faring ill with regenerate 

PowS. France, by reason of crime, misrule, and 

bad institutions. Meanwhile an influence 
was drawing near from without which was to give sud- 
den and appalling strength to the elements of disturbance 
in the State, and to stamp a character on the Revolution 
more terrible than any it had yet shown. Not long after 
the flight to Varennes, the Sovereigns of Austria and 

Prussia had met; and, at an interview at 

Jjeclaration 4.1. t i /- -r-.-, 

ofPiinitz, the little town of Pilnitz, had laid down a 

^79?"^^' P^^^ foj* a Coalition against France, with 

a solemn protestation that the cause of 
Louis XVI. was that of all the Monarchies of Europe. 
German writers,* whose mission it has been of late to 
deny the possibility of German ambition, may say that 
this League was a mere pretence ; but it could not have 
so appeared to Frenchmen, and it was followed by de- 
monstrations of force, and by fair words at least to the 
collection of emigres who were menacing France from 
German territory. Prussia, too, at this time was hanker- 
ing after Alsace ; the Count of Artois had been base 
enough to hint at concessions in Lorraine as the price of 
aid to the good cause ; and Russia, Sweden, Piedmont, 
and Spain, held an attitude more or less threatening. It 
is certain, moreover, that for months afterwards the 

* Professor Von Sybel is the most eminent of these apologists, 
but his arguments are mere special pleading ; and the very fact that 
the Sovereigns of Austria and Prussia, hitherto hostile, issued the 
manifesto of Pilnitz, was more than enough to provoke France. 



1 79 1- The Legislative Assembly. 6i 

Kinsr and Oueen were in resrular correspon- ^ . 

1 . , '% ^ ^ ^ . , , Projects of 

dance with the Emperor of Austria and other the King and 
Sovereigns ; and though they still repudiated ^"^^"• 
foreign war, Marie Antoinette urged the necessity of an 
armed Congress upon the frontier, which would place the 
Monarchy on a new footing, and of course lead to a 
counter-revolution. These intrigues, however, were not 
fully known, though a kind of instinct apprehended part 
of the truth; and the Legislative Assembly was for a 
considerable time divided on the question of peace or 
war, the Moderates and the Gironde being for hostilities, 
the extreme Left condemning an appeal to arms as tend- 
ing to a dictatorship and the rule of the sword. After an 
envenomed controversy with his opponents. Divisions in 
the Austrian Minister, Cobentzel, at last in- the Assembly. 
dicated an intention on the part of his master to inter- 
vene directly in the affairs of France, and to put down 
the Revolution by force, and this precipitated the im- 
pending crisis. The Assembly declared war 
against Austria in April, 1792, the King IgS'l^T' 
assenting with seeming readiness. Prussia .^''i^- » Prussia 

** _ ° joins Austria. 

eagerly coalesced with her Austrian rival ; 
and thus commenced a tremendous conflict, which was 
to shake the world for twenty-three years, in which 
France, we think, was not the first aggressor. Three 
French armies were despatched to the frontier ; but the 
soldiers, spoiled by long neglect of discipline, were 
unable to look in the faces of their foes, and they were 
driven out of Belgium after a severe skirm- 
ish, slaughtering in their fury one of their S'Sgium"''^^ 

chief officers. Before long, too, it became -^p"^' ^^^y* 

°' ' 1792. 

evident that the whole forces of the Kins:- 

dom were demoralized, and wanting in almost every 

appliance of war ; and Lafayette, who commanded one 



62 The Legislative Assembly. ch. iv. 

of the three armies, and in whom confidence was gener- 
ally placed, made no secret of the danger of the situa- 
tion. 

These tidings spread consternation through 
in France^'°'^ France, and exasperated the passions that 
stirred the capital. The war party in the 
Assembly, swayed by the Gironde, at once acquired 
a decisive ascendency ; the leaders of the populace 
shouted treason, and vociferated that the troops had 
been sold ; and dark suspicions accumulated against the 
Court, the King, and especially the Queen. Even in 
the Assembly it was openly said that an Austrian com- 
mittee sat in the palace, betraying the dearest interest 
of France ; and fierce threats were uttered that an Aus- 
trian woman should not be allowed to stand in the way 
of the Nation. Ere long the insensate conduct of Louis 

added fresh fuel to the kindling excitement. 
ducTof LouiT" He had been compelled, before hostilities 

began, to part with his Feuillant adminis- 
tration, one of the members of which had been im- 
peached for pusillanimity in the negotiations with Aus- 
tria ; and he had formed a ministry mainly composed 
from the Gironde and popular party, but of which the 
real chief was Dumouriez,"^ an able and brilliant soldier 
of fortune. This cabinet had proposed a new law 
against the non-juring and half-rebellious priests, and 
the Assembly had voted it with acclamation ; and soon 
after the defeats on the frontier one of the ministers, 
brought forward a measure for creating a camp of twenty 
thousand volunteers near Paris, which would become 

* D\imouriez, bom 1745. This able general and brilliant diplo- 
matist had served and intrigued with distinction before the Revo- 
lution. His character is drawn with skill and fidelity by M. Thiers, 
Jlistoire de la Revolution Fra/ncaise, vol. ii. p. 58, ed. 1842. 



1 791* The Legislative Assembly. 63 

the nucleus of a national army to be drawn together 
from all parts of the kingdom. An enthusiastic vote 
welcomed this scheme also ; and it deserves notice that 
although Dumouriez expressed at first his dissent from 
the project, and made use of the opportunity to intrigue 
against three of his Gironde colleagues, he recurred to 
it almost immediately, however worthless and danger- 
ous, besides, such a force must have seemed to an ex- 
perienced soldier. The King, however, 
even at this crisis, directly thwarted the vote th?decrees^ of 
of the Legislature ; refused to sanction the ^^^^ Assembly 

^ *-* and dismisses 

double decree ; dismissed first the three the Gironde 
Gironde ministers, and Dumouriez himself Dumouriez^" 
a few days afterwards ; and chose a new 
Cabinet from the unpopular Feuillants, suspected, in 
part at least, of weakness, and discredited in the eye of 
the Assembly and the Nation. 

History justly condemns the excesses 
that followed, and the bad use that was june^ofiyg^. 
made of popular passion ; but neither ought 
she to forget the provocation, or the circumstances that 
led to the triumph of anarchy. The leaders of the 
Assembly, once more brought into collision with a Sove- 
reign and a Court believed to be leagued with the 
national enemy, at a crisis of sudden national peril, 
turned to the capital for support ; and while they de- 
nounced openly the conduct of the King, they sought 
the aid of the demagogues and mobs of Paris as instru- 
ments against the intrigues of the palace. This course 
was unwise, and in part selfish, but motives of patriotism 
concurred ; nor is it perhaps surprising that these men 
made this v/ild appeal to revolutionary forces. Petion, 
the Mayor of Paris, gladly organized the powers of the 
Commons to stir up agitation ; the Jacobins and Corde- 



64 The Legislative Assembly. ch. iv. 

liers called on all patriots to take up arms to resist 
oppression ; and the galleries of the Assembly were 
nightly thrown open to swarms of ferocious and squalid 
spectators, who clamored down attempts to oppose the 
^ ,, majority. In a very short time the streets 

Encouraged by . , . 

the popular of the City were once more dense with 

leaders in the e •^ i j 

assembly and masses of pikcmcn, who overawed or won 
by the Com- over the National Guards, and this growing 

mune of Pans. ' ° *> 

army of savagery was largely recruited from 
the desperadoes who for some months had been congre- 
gating into the dens of the capital. An occasion for an 
outbreak soon arose, and there can be no doubt that it 
was at least connived at by many in the Assembly and 
by the municipal authorities. On June 20, the anniver- 
sary-of the oath of the Tennis Court, a great crowd col- 
lected to commemorate that event, and it burst armed 
into the hall of the Legislature, waving banners with 
murderous or grotesque emblems, and calling on the 
deputies to act with energy. The mass, unchecked and 
even welcomed, next broke through the gates of the 
Tuileries, and the courts of the palace were soon filled 
with an excited multitude, crying, " Down with the veto," 
" The Nation and the patriot ministers forever." Several 
thousand National Guards were present, but they looked 
on with indifference or-had no orders ; and one battalion, 
it is said, shouted " that it knew who was its real 
enemy." The chambers of the royal family were 
quickly reached, and at the sight of Madame Elizabeth 
yells arose fiercely against the " Austrian woman," the 
princess being taken for the Queen, while the King was 
assailed with epithets of "Monsieur Veto," and "the 
Constitution or death." The impassive attitude of Louis, 
however, had some effect in calming the crowd, and no 
hand was lifted up against him, though a cap of liberty 



1 79 1- The Legislative Assembly. 65 

was thrust upon his head, and he remained in this 
humihating position for hours, surrounded by execration 
and ribaldry. The Queen, meanwhile, had been hap- 
pily rescued by the efforts of a few courageous men ; and 
awestruck, it is said, by her majesty and grace, her in- 
tending murderers turned aside their weapons, while a 
few kindly words from her lips melted into tears some 
of the female furies who had hung on the skirts of the 
hideous procession. Towards evening Potion, who had 
at least offered no opposition to the demonstration, per- 
suaded the multitude to disperse ; but the secret of the 
defenceless state of the palace had been discovered, and 
was not forgotten; and royalty seemed, as it w^ere, trailed 
in the dust. 

The disgraceful scene of June 20, caused a 
slight reaction in favor of the King. The favor^of 'louIs! 
patience of Louis excited compassion ; the 
Assembly began to dread the forces which its leaders 
had rashly called to their aid ; and the Gironde party, 
appalled at the prospect, made overtures for the recall 
of the three Gironde ministers. Lafayette, too, hastened 
from the frontier to condemn the violence of the Com- 
mune and the Jacobins. Petion was prosecuted for his 
conduct on the 20th, and the moderate citizens, still the 
majority, were sincerely desirous of seeing order restored. 
But the movement ere long made renewed progress, pre- 
cipitated by the intelligence of fresh defeats, by passion, 
and by the obstinacy of the Court. On June 30 the As- 
sembly passed a resolution that aH existing authorities 
should be in permanent session, and thus the o-rganiza- 
tion of democratic forces which had been created all over 
France, and had fallen under the control of demagogues, 
was kept in motion to excite the people. Petitions began 
to pour in from the provinces ; the towns fermented with 
F 



66 The Legislative Assembly. ch. iv. 

angry agitation ; the municipal assemblies, and those of 
the Departments, were mastered by low and reckless 
mobs, all more or less with arms in their hands, and Paris 
formed the centre from which this machinery was worked 
by those who managed those turbulent masses. Mean- 
while an attempt was made to create the very armed 
force which the King had opposed ; volunteers were in- 
vited to flock to Paris for the approaching commemora- 
tion of the fall of the Bastille ; the Constitutional Guard 
of Louis was disbanded ; and the staff of the National 
Guard was changed and filled with men of a revolution- 
ary type. At the same time the ferocious bands who had 
shown their power on June 20 were held in the leash by 
their desperate leaders, and vile incitements were not 
wanting to urge all " patriotic men " to join them. The 

Commune of Paris, almost independent and 
of the" Dema- Sovereign within its own limits, was, in the 
Commune^ ^^^ main, responsible for those measures ; biit 

the majority of the Assembly concurred, 
and they were attended with the desired results. On the 
day of the festival Louis found himself in the presence 
of a host of armed men — many came from distant parts 
of the kingdom — who either maintained an ominous 
silence, or shouted, "The Nation," " Potion," or "Death;" 
and even the National Guards were wild and unsteady. 
By this time the state of the capital had become so alarm- 
ing that the King was implored by ministers and trusty 
friends to fly ; two high-souled noblemen, faithful among 
the faithless, placed their wealth at his feet ; and even 
Lafayette promised to come to his aid and to take him 
in safety to the army. But irresolution and evil councils 
prevailed ; the unhappy monarch refused to move ; and 
Marie Antoinette exclaimed, in a burst of passion, " that 
she would rather perish than trust such a hypocrite as 



1792. The L egislative Assembly . 6 7 

Lafayette." Nor were other motives, as we now know, 
wanting : the King and Queen had been kept informed 
of the intended march of the German armies ; and she 
had boasted exultingly that her dehverance was at hand. 
Pity as we may an august victim, that deliverance would 
have been wrought in blood and fire, even if this result 
had been against her will ; and truth requires us to note 
the circumstance. 

France and Paris were in this critical state 
when a memorable incident suddenly re- ofiBrun^ck" 
moved the last checks on the revolutionary 
forces. At the end of July the Prussian army, under the 
Duke of Brunswick, was set in motion, two ^ ~ . 

A • T'- 1 • • 1 . Invasion of 

Austrian divisions being on either wing ; and France by the 
the invading host, headed by bands of Austrians, jdy 
€7nigr4s, wild with delight, and thirsting for ^nd August, 
revenge, advanced from the Rhine to the 
Moselle and the Meuse. Brunswick issued a proclama- 
tion, ever to be condemned by those to whom national 
freedom is dear, and which years afterwards met its 
fitting reward. This manifesto, among other outrages, 
summoned Paris instantly to " submit to its King," 
declared that it would be " razed to the earth " if any in- 
sult were offered to the royal family ; and, after announc- 
ing that the " Legislative Assembly, the National Guards, 
and the municipal authorities would be held answerable 
for whatever occurred, to military courts-martial, without 
a hope of pardon," kindly added that "their Austrian 
and Prussian Majesties would do their good offices with 
his most Christian Majesty to obtain forgiveness for his 
rebellious subjects." This infamous document caused a 
thrill of fury and wrath to shoot through the capital ; and 
though Louis, no doubt sincerely, disavowed what the 
Allies had done, the mischief, unhappily, was beyond 



6S The Legislative Assembly. ch. iv. 

recall. In the outburst of indignation which stirred the 
citizens, the first thought was of safety and vengeance ; 
and as the Assembly, at this crisis, did little but applaud 
the orators of the Gironde, and had no resolute and 
practical policy, power passed quickly to the more reck- 
less demagogues, and there was hardly anything to 
oppose the most desperate projects, though 

The assembly / ^ /. , -it i 

paralyzed ; the party of Order was still the most numer- 
to* ^he ^Dema- ous. An. insurrection was regularly planned, 
gogues. jj.g object being to dethrone the King, and 

to keep him a hostage with the rest of his family ; and, 
as we have seen, means to work on the populace, and 
formidable armed power, were" not wanting, while all 
other authorities were weak and doubtful. Revolutionary 
committees, as they were styled, were formed in the 
Jacobin Club and in the Commune; and 
for Trising. delegates from these harangued the sections, 
Damon. called upon them to organize themselves 

and rise, and laid the train for a general explosion. 
Danton shone eminent among these leaders; and his 
terrible aspect, fierce earnestness,. and rude, savage, but 
genuine eloquence, had already gained him the name of 
the " Patriot Mirabeau." By this time thousands of vol- 
unteers had arrived to swell the bands of Parisian pike- 
men ; and among them the contingent from Marseilles, 
" six hundred men who could do or die," were conspicu- 
ous for their audacious bearing. The rising was fixed for 
August 9 ; and as some of the members of the Commune 
were not willing to go the necessary lengths, it was re- 
solved to replace this body suddenly by men of the true 
patriot stamp from the sections. Petion, treacherous 
and timid, assented to the scheme, so that his hand in it 
should not be seen ; and it was veiled under a show of 
legality, an immense petition from the forty-eight sections 



1792. The Legislative Assembly. 69 

for the immediate setting aside of the king having been 
presented to the Assembly. 

On August 9, when darkness had fallen, 

, - . , , Paris on the 

the note of preparation began to sound, night of Aug. 
The summer moon was calm in the heavens ; ^' ^^^^* 
and all those who in a great city love quiet, whatever 
the passions of the hour, were sunk in sleep, unconscious 
of what was to come. Many, too, though by nature 
friends of order, also half knew that wild schemes were 
abroad, and were not sorry that a stern lesson was to 
be given to what they thought a perfidious Court ; and 
timidity, selfishness, and dull indifference, combined to 
make thousands tame and passive. But the more 
agitated parts of the capital were alive with a fierce 
tumultuary stir ; and dark figures flitted through streets 
and lanes to reach the appointed places of meeting, 
while bells clanged forth from Town Hall and steeple, 
as ages before they had rung out a challenge to inva- 
ding Teutonic hordes, as they had ushered in that hour 
of horror and death when the kennels ran thick with 
Huguenot blood. Here vehement and gesticulating 
groups were seen hanging on the lips of a fiery orator ; 
there conspirators sate in secluded conclave receiving 
tidings from thronging messengers ; in other places 
loud cheers greeted the gatherings of the mustering 
bands, and the quick rattle of the drum beat a wild 
assembly. Meanwhile all that was most daring had 
met in the sections ; the form and voice of Danton rose 
high and bold, though other mob leaders had slunk off 
in silence ; and at a given signal a body of delegates, 
elected by the sections with vociferous applause, made 
their way into the council chamber of the Commune, 
and seizing on the Government of the capital, accelerated 
and directed the outbreak. The forces of anarchy now 



70 The Legislative Assetnbfy. ch. iv. 

developed themselves ; the tramp of armed columns in 
the streets grew dense ; the sullen clank of cannon was 
heard ; and deep masses, headed by desperate men of 
hideous aspect, in military garb, collected in the broad 
squares and ways, fringed at the edges by insurgent 
multitudes. Yet signs of hesitation were not wanting ; 
more than one tongue-valiant leader was driven on by 
exasperated followers threatening him with death ; and 
the fear of Brunswick, want of mutual confidence, and 
the consciousness of a dangerous purpose, made many 
pause and turn weakly away. Hours passed before the 
rising attained anything like really formidable strength ; 
and it was daylight before the forest of pikes, here and 
there bristling with deadlier weapons, and skirted by 
yelling and enthusiastic crowds, advanced along the 
banks of the Seine to the thick labyrinth of enclosures 
and streets, from which, at that time, the broad front 
of the Tuileries rose in antique magnificence. 

The King and the Court had during these 
the' King hours been kept informed of the peril at 

Court!^ hand. Terror and anxiety reigned in the 

palace ; though at a report that the rising 
had failed, fine gentlemen jeered at the " cowardice 
of the canaille," and fine ladies joined in pretty disdain. 
Preparations were hastily made for defence ; National 
Guards were collected from the most loyal quarters ; and 
Petion, Judas-like, was in attendance to screen himself 

and utter smooth words of hope. A hand- 
1792!*^ ^°' ful of Nobles and their domestics, too, 

flocked in to strike a last blow for the throne ; 
though the main trust of the Court lay in a few hundred 
Swiss, a remnant of the old Body-guard, who still lingered 
in the royal service. A lamentable incident, however, 
lessened whatever prospect of success existed. The 



1792- The Legislative Asse77tbly. 71 

commander-in-chief of the National Guards, a brave 
soldier of the name of Mandat, had prepared an able 
plan of resistance ; and as his influence on his men was 
great, they might possibly not have fallen away from 
him. But, doubtless with the connivance of Petion, he 
was lured away and murdered by the conspiring Com- 
mune ; and his death left the palace without a head or 
leader. At the first appearance of the insurgent columns 
Louis went out to address the National Guards, and had 
he spoken and looked as became a King he might have 
found a way to their hearts. But the downcast bearing 
and hesitating gestures of the unhappy Monarch made 
the appeal useless ; and the contempt of the crowd grew 
into anger when Marie Antoinette, pointing, it is said, to 
the few Nobles standing haughtily aloof, exclaimed, 
"These are men who will show you your duty." By 
this time the assailants had reached the palace, swarm- 
ing round the approaches on every side ; and, far as it 
could gaze, the eye rested on a wild chaos 
of passionate wrath, of tossing steel, of me- popuface^ 
nacing faces, of revengeful clamor, of hide- Tu\^eries 
ous revelry. The weapons of the National 
Guards fell from their hands at the sight ; and the mise- 
rable spectable of distrust and mutiny of which so many 
proofs had been given was fearfully repeated at this 
supreme crisis. A well-meaning officer of the old Com- 
mune — Petion had got away, his work being done — im- 
plored the King to avoid bloodshed, and to seek refuge 
within the Assembly, the chamber of which was a hall close 
by, and the ill-fated Louis quietly assented. The royal 
family passed in sad procession along the gardens of the 
Tuileries, amidst the yells of ferocious mobs, baulked, 
for the moment, of their intended prey ; and in a few 
minutes they were in a place of safety. The King was 



72 The Legislative Asse?fibly. ch. iv. 

received with cold respect, and, indeed, many of the 
alarmed Assembly would have even now turned to him 
again if they dared ; but he was soon made to feel that 
he was a mere captive. A deputy having 
The King made the remark that the debates of the 

and Royal . „ 

Family take Assembly must be free, the royal family were 
Assfmbiy. ^ huddled away into a box at the back of the 
reporters' gallery, and not a voice was raised 
of loyalty or pity. The eyes of Marie Antoinette dropped 
bitter tears, but the heavy features of Louis looked dull 
indifference; and the chief of the illustrious race of 
Bourbon, in sight of the falling throne of his sires, ate, 
it is said, with seeming content, a dish of peaches!* 

Before long the irregular sounds of dis- 

The Tuileries , • i t i <- 

attacked and order wcrc lost m the dm and roar ot 
Siasfaore of battle. The mob had forced the gates of 
the Swiss. ^^ palace soon after the departure of the 

royal family ; and it seemed as if the outbreak would 
cease, the triumph of the populace being complete. 
But a shot or two fired on either side caused passion 
to flame up more fiercely than ever; and the insurgents, 
headed by the men of Marseilles, made a wild dash 
at the inner doors of the palace. Then was seen 
what military worth can do against undisciplined num- 
bers ; the Swiss Guard fired and charged home, and 
in an instant the assailants were yelling in flight, and 
the refluent multitudes surged heavily backwards. At 
this moment, however, an order came from the un- 
fortunate King to cease firing; and as the obedient 
soldiery reluctantly fell back, the revolutionary forces 
again pressed forward,, in the exultation of unhoped- 
for victory. A murderous and horrible scene ensued; 

* Souvenirs de la Terreur, per George Duval, quoted by M. 
Feuillet de Conches, vol. vi. p. 285. 



1792. 71ie Legislative Assembly. 73 

the Swiss were hemmed in and at last overpowered; 
and the popular fury wreaked itself on the bodies of 
the dead in hideous outrage, while fiendish women 
danced round the mangled corpses. The palace was 
now stormed by the triumphant multitude ; and while 
bands of cut-throats plied the work of murder, all 
that was disorderly and vile in a great city revelled 
in the deserted abode of royalty. In a few moments 
the treasures of ages were destroyed ; the costly floors 
were strewn with the wrecks of pictures in tatters and 
broken statues, and troops of harlots, shrieking for the 
" Austrian woman " — Court gossip had proclaimed she 
was as bad as themselves, and the infamous falsehood 
had reached the streets — were seen bedizened in the 
finery of the Court. Yet signs of humanity were not 
wanting even in these foul saturnalia of license ; the 
ladies and women of the Court were spared, amidst 
shouts of " Do not disgrace the Nation ; " and a kind of 
principle controlled the excesses of passion, for vulgar 
pillage was generally forbidden, and more than one 
thief was caught and hanged. The lowest depths of 
anarchy had not yet been reached, when wickedness 
riots without restraint. 

Such was the terrible outbreak ofAugu St 10, „ „ . 

° Reflection on 

1792, leading to the immediate overthrow the rising of 
of the Bourbon Monarchy. The causes of "^^ 
disorder which had agitated France^ undermined the 
throne, and destroyed authority, had been made more 
active by various events ; and foreign aggression came 
to give a new and extraordinary impulse to them. In 
the effervescence of passion which ensued, the repre- 
sentatives of the nation, contending against a Sovereign 
and Court believed to be false, had turned for aid to 
revolutionary Paris ; and this power, organized by mob 



74 The Legislative Assembly. ch. iv. 

leaders, had overborne open and secret opposition, and 
displayed great and appalling strength. Authority was 
ere long to pass away from the classes which had so 
lately seized it ; and the reign of license and terror was 
soon to prevail, with results which history will never for- 
get. Yet many of the deeds we have briefly described 
were condemned by the majority of Frenchmen ; and, 
even in Paris, the greater part of the citizens lamented 
the horrors of August lo. But the Constitution of 1790 
gave scope to revolutionary forces ; the different parties 
on the side of order were divided or suspicious of each 
other ; above all, the cause of National independence 
and of the new interests created in 1789 seemed identi- 
fied with that of the so-called patriots in circumstances 
which gave them extraordinary strength ; and the result 
was that the anarchists triumphed, although really a 
minority in the State. It is a peculiarity, too, in the 
French national character, to yield easily to daring 
leaders ; and this contributed to the fearful issue, though 
general causes may account for it. We shall now see 
how the revolutionary powers which had become as- 
cendant went along their course, in the agony of a 
Nation distracted at homCj and struggling to hold 
foreign invaders at bay. 



1792. The Convention, 75 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CONVENTION. 

The immediate effect of August 10 was to 
give the Legislative Assembly comparative August 10° 
freedom."'^ It might secretly dread the mobs 
of the capital ; but it was no longer fettered by the veto 
and the Court ; and whatever sympathy it felt for the 
unhappy King, it was restored, so to speak, to life by 
the outbreak. While the Tuileries was still in the power 
of the multitude, Vergniaud, the most brilhant orator 
of the Gironde, moved that Louis XVI., should be de- 
posed for' the present, and that a National Convention 
should be at once summoned to pronounce ^, ^ 

^ 1 he Conven- 

on the future destiny of France ; and the tion summoned. 
Vote passed amidst thunders of applause. 
Before long the ill-fated royal family was ^, ^,. 

^ "^ / The King and 

imprisoned in the Temple, an old fortress, Royal Family 
so called from the famous Order of that In the°Temple. 
name, and was placed in the hands of the 
city authorities, who claimed the charge as their lawful 
right ; and the three Gironde ministers who had been 
dismissed were recalled, the ministry of justice, at the 
same time, being bestowed on Danton, to please the 

*The internal history of France, just before and during the 
Reign of Terror, has been described by many writers, some of 
them eloquent and picturesque. As an accurate and clear analysis 
of the events of the time, and of the working of the revolutionary 
institutions and press, M. Mortimer Terneaux's Histoire de la 
Terreur seems to me to deserve special notice. The notes, too, 
of M. Feuillet de Conches, in his sixth volume, are often valuable. 



76 The Convention. ch. v. 

populace. Simultaneously, energetic attempts were 
made to strengthen the national defences ; the camp 
near Paris, which had been the subject of such fierce 
contention, was hastily armed ; and commissioners were 
despatched to announce the events which had taken 
place to the chiefs of the armies, and to make prepara- 
tions for the new elections. Meanwhile, the usurping 
Commune of Paris left nothing undone to consolidate 
its powers and 'to make the triumph of the loth com- 
plete. With the assent of the half-willing Assembly, 

the delegates of the sections annulled the 
sQres ^of "^Ae existing magistracy of the capital, and seized 
PaSr"^^ °^ °^ ^^^ internal police ; and the National 

Guards were wholly changed, their numbers 
being trebled, and their ranks crowded with the huge 
bands of insurrectionary pikemen. By these means the 
government of the city was secured to the demagogues 
and their dependents, supported by an immense armed 
force ; and though an attempt at opposition was made 
by the citizens in the more wealthy sections, it was 
silenced at the cry that France was in danger. By this 
time the vile mob leaders who had skulked away during 
the struggle of the loth had come back to their wonted 
haunts; and the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, and other 
places, rang with vehement exhortations to the people 
to make use of their newly-won liberties, and to exact a 
terrible vengeance "for the deaths of their children" 
from the aristocratic and Court factions, who, with the 
assistance of the approaching enemy, were "planning 
the extermination of all patriots." By the orders of the 
Commune, and probably of Danton, suspected houses 
were, accordingly, searched, and the prisons were 
crowded with hundreds of captives, who, it was openly 
boasted, were detained as hostages, and marked out, in 



1792- The Convention, 77 

certain events, for destruction. Petion, who, in return 
for the base part he had played, had been nominally 
made mayor again, but whose influence had altogether 
waned, was obliged to sanction these fearful proceed- 
ings, though he had already began to tremble at them. 
At this crisis a terrible incentive was sud- , ^ 

. . Lafayette 

denly applied to this collection of passions, throws up 

On receiving the news of the deposition of rnand ; ad- 

the King, Lafayette refused to obey the As- German^ '^"^ 

semblv ; and after a fruitless attempt to in- armies to 

' ' ^ Verdun. 

fluence his troops, threw up his command, 
and fled across the frontier. Meanwhile, the Austrian 
and Prussian armies had advanced into the interior of 
France ; and having rolled past the great stronghold of 
Metz, were making directly, by Verdun, for the capital, 
their light cavalry scouring the plains of Champagne. 
All seemed lost ; and though the awestruck Assembly 
made passionate appeals to French patriotism, several 
of its leaders, especially the Gironde orators, proposed 
that Paris should be abandoned, and the seat of govern- 
ment transferred to the Loire, Danton came, however, 
conspicuously to the front, and declared that such cow- 
ardice was not to be thought of; and, at the same time, 
with a ferocious threat, certainly not understood by the 
other ministers, exclaimed that the real danger was 
from within, and that a guilty faction must be taught to 
tremble. Daring and unscrupulous, though less cruel 
than more than one of the mob leaders, he perhaps gave 
the signal of blood to the Commune ; and, in the fury 
of the moment, a committee of that body proceeded to 
carry out the scheme of revenge which had been held 
out to the popular imagination. Bands of Massacre of 

, . 1 ^ y. ,1 September. 

assassins were hired to force open the 

prisons ; and, hideous mock trials added horror to the 



7 8 The Convention. ch. v. 

scene, their unhappy victims were ruthlessly butchered, 
and thrown out in heaps to crowds swarming around, 

September ^midst shouts of exulting frenzy. The exe- 
2 and 6, crable work of slaughter went on for days ; 

fear, anger, wickedness, and fiendish hate, 
uniting in a dreadful carnival of crime ; and the com- 
plicity of the Commune is proved by the fact that it 
baffled several attempts to stop the triumph of blood, 
and its revolutionary army of N-ational Guards was never 
called out to restore order, and was allowed to join or 
not, as it pleased, in the massacres. In this way, much 
that was noble and fair in a once splendid Court was 
ruthlessly destroyed, intermingled with numerous less 
known victims ; and the frenzy of the murderers became 
so extreme that a band of State prisoners, being escorted 
from Orleans, was immolated with frightful cruelty at 

Frightful Versailles. -Nor was it possible to check the 
scenes in deviltry of passion when carnage had ceased 

in the emptied prisons ; the form of the 
lovely Princess of Lamballe,* one of the most intimate 
friends of the Queen, was dragged, hideously mutilated, 
through the streets, and exposed to the eyes of Marie 
Antoinette ; and ghastly processions of heads on pikes 
were.carried through the principal streets of the capital, 
to strike terror into the hearts of the " foes of the peo- 
ple." At the same time pillage was let loose ; the man- 
sions of the rich and many churches were sacked ; the 
repository of the Crown jewels was rifled ; and some 
quarters of the city seemed like a town abandoned to a 

* Louisa of Savoy, Princess of Lamballe, was one of the purest 
and fairest ornaments of the Court of Versailles, and one of the few 
real friends of the unfortunate Queen. M. Thiers tells her death 
well, Histoire de la Revolution Francaise, vol. ii. p. 335, edit. 
1842. 



1792- The Convention. 79 

plundering enemy. Yet, as always happens, even when 
man appears in his most revolting aspect, faint gleams 
of humanity flickered here and there over these scenes 
of terror and dismay ; noble examples of endurance and 
virtue were given; and many of the "patriots" refused 
to share in the spoil robbed by their baser fellows. The 
victims of the butchery seem to have reached the num- 
ber of fourteen hundred persons. 

Such was the " massacre of September." ^, . 

. 11 1 1 The Assembly 

as it has ever smce been called ; and, indignant at 

^•L T- -LI J- J /\. J the massacre. 

though bloodier scenes occurred afterwards, 
no event perhaps in the French Revolution was more 
atrocious than this sanction of horrors by the authorities 
of a great capital. Terror and hatred account for the 
frightful crime, though no excuse for it can be offered ; 
and it is missing the truth to ascribe it to mere party 
motives, or even to any special vice in the nature of 
Frenchmen. From this time the divisions between the 
Assembly and the mob rulers of Paris began to grow 
more and more deep ; the Right, the Centre, and even 
the Jacobin Mountain, concurred in the expressions of 
anger and blame ; and though the guilty committee 
of the Commune published an eulogy on the "justice of 
the people," hardly one even of the city demagogues 
recurred with approbation to these days of blood. In 
fcy:t, the frenzy which provoked the massacre gave way 
ere long to different sentiments, for a time at least com- 
paratively in the ascendant, in consequence of a sudden 
change of fortune. After the flight of Lafayette the 
chief command of the French armies was given to Du- 
mouriez ; and as the invaders began to hesitate at the 
critical moment when they reached the Meuse, that 
general was able to pluck safety from what appeared 
peril beyond remedy, though he must have failed against 



So The Convention. ch. v. 

determined foes. Drawing together all his available 
forces, and summoning Kellermann from Louvain to 
his aid, Dumouriez retreated behind the long hill range, 
known by the name of the Ardennes and the Argonne, 
which crosses Champagne just west of the Meuse ; and, 
having seized the passes through this intricate region, 
he waited steadily the attack of the allies, while thou- 
sands of recruits were sent off to his camp from the 
capital and the adjoining Provinces. He succeeded in 
making a stand for a time, though driven from his 
positions with little difficulty ; and when, at last, on 
September 20, the Prussians had forced his line of de^ 
fence, a misdirected manoeuvre of Brunswick 'enabled 
Battle of ^^ French, bad troops as they were, to de- 

^eaTresuks • ^^^^ ^^ attempt to dislodge them from the 
retreat of the heights of Valmy.* This trifling advantage 
Austrians, had wondcrful results ; the King of Prussia, 
Brunsv/ick, and the Austrian generals began to disagree, 
and to feel alarm ; and the extreme wetness of an incle- 
ment season caused the invading army to perish by 
thousands. Before many days had passed the proud 
hosts which had advanced near Ch§,lons was in full re- 
treat ; and France and Paris were rescued from an in- 
vasion which, if properly directed, must have crushed 
all resistance. 

Meanwhile the National Convention had met, and be- 
,, . , , fore long was installed in the Tuileries, the 

Meeting of the ^ , , , - 

Convention, forsaken abode of captive royalty. This 
"x^^T^ ^^ ^^' Body, elected under the influence of August 
10 and of foreign invasion, was more revo- 
lutionary than its immediate predecessor, but it was 
largely composed of the same men, and the majority 

* New and interesting details about the Battle of Valmy will be 
found in Feuillet de Conches, vol. vi. p. 338. 



1792. 



The Convention, 8i 



were opposed to anarchy. The party of the ^^^^.^ .^ .^ 
Mountain in it, however, was more powerful 
than in the Legislative Assembly ; the Plain or Centre 
was even more uncertain ; and it was observed that sev- 
eral of the most distinguished deputies, who had formerly 
sate on the Radical Left, were now saen on the Conser- 
vative Right. The orators of the Gironde were again 
returned, and became the chiefs of what were called the 
Moderates; and the Assembly, if eager for political 
changes, was, on the whole, on the side of social order, 
though the representatives of Paris— of whom Marat, 
Robespierre, and Danton were the most conspicuous— 
were taken generally from the class of demagogues. The 
first measures of the Convention showed what really were 
its natural tendencies. A committee was appointed to 
inquire into the charges against Louis XVI.; 
and Monarchy was abolished and a Repub- ciared a Re- 
lic proclaimed with hardly a single dissen- J^^^i^^'^^^^P'- 
tient voice, the conduct of the Court during 
the preceding year, especially since the declaration of 
war, having excited general indignation and distrust. 
Efforts, too, were made to strengthen the armies, now 
pursuing the enemy across the frontier ; and in reply to 
the manifesto of Brunswick, and the not-forgotten decla- 
ration of Pilnitz, the cause of Nations was arrayed against 
that of Kings, and liberty was offered, in the ^^^^ of liberty 
name of France, to any people who would to foreign na- 

T/- 1 1 • tions, Nov. 19. 

put down Its despots. If, however, this revo- 
lutionary creed was aggressive and even destructive 
abroad — and the provocation must be borne in mind — the 
majority of the Convention sincerely wished to curb 
anarchy and license at home ; and it viewed with alarm 
the terrible events which had lately disgraced the capital. 
The Moderates, led by the briUiant Gironde, denounced 
G 



^2 Tlie Convention. ch. v. 

the atrocities of September; asserted openly that the 
Commune of Paris was assuming a power fatal to the 
State ; and declared that Robespierre and men of his 
stamp were aiming at the worst of all tyrannies. These 
accusations were generally well heard, and though fxcrce 
recriminations were uttered, though the Commune 
challenged inquiry into its acts, and the clubs of the 
anarchists echoed with threats, the party of mere disorder 
was at first comparatively powerless in the Convention. 
Dissensions ^^^^^^ passions, however, had been aroused ; 
renewed be- the mobs of the Capital made ansrrv demon- 

tween the Mo- . j i i 

derates and ja- strations, and the demagogues within and 
outside the Assembly — known now gener- 
ally by the name of Jacobins, from the society which was 
the centre of their power — ^began to view with deadly 
hatred and jealousy the Moderates, and especially the 
leaders of the Gironde, whose eloquence and culture 
provoked their resentment. 
^ . , - The Convention was in this disturbed 

1 rial of 

Louis XVI. State when the report of the conduct of the 
1792". "' King was brought up. A'fter an attempt on 

the part of the Jacobin leaders to obtain a 
summary sentence of death, it was resolved to put Louis 
upon his trial, and to proceed by a regular impeachment. 
On December 1 1 the ill-fated monarch, taken from his pri- 
son to his former palace, appeared at the bar of his repub- 
lican judges, was received in silence and with covered 
heads, and answered interrogatories addressed to him as 
" Louis Capet," though with an air of deference. His pas- 
sive constancy touched many hearts ; and such is the sym- 
pathy that is always felt for fallen greatness when before 
the eye, that an immediate decision would have perhaps 
saved him, though the suspicions of the Assembly had 
been lately renewed by the discovery of papers of a 



1792. The Convention. 83 

questionable kind secreted in an iron chest by his orders. 
On the 26th the advocates of the King made an eloquent 
defence for their discrowned client, and Louis added, in 
a few simple words, that the "blood of the loth of Au- 
gust should not be laid to his charge." The debates in 
the Assembly now began, and it soon became evident 
that the Jacobin faction were making the question the 
means to further their objects, and to hold up their oppo- 
nents to popular hatred. They clamored for immediate 
vengeance on the tyrant, declared that the Republic 
could not be safe until the Court was smitten on its 
head, and a great example had been given to Europe, 
and denounced as reactionary and as concealed royalists 
all who resisted the demands of patriotism. These 
ferocious invectives were aided by the expedients so 
often employed with success, and the capital and its 
mobs were arrayed to intimidate any deputies who hesi- 
tated in the " cause of the Nation." The Moderates, on 
the other hand, were divided in mind ; a majority, per- 
haps, condemning the King, but also wishing to spare 
his life : and the Gironde leaders, hahing between their 
convictions, their feelings, their desires, and their fears, 
shrank from a courageous and resolute course. The 
result was such as usually follows when energy and will 
encounter indecision. On January 14, 1793, the Con- 
vention declared Louis XVI. guilty, and on the following 
day sentence of immediate death was pro- 
nounced by a majority of one, proposals for Sentence of 

, , , , , . death pro- 

a respite and an appeal to the people havmg nounced by 
been rejected at the critical moment. The of™ne." ^ 
votes had been taken after a solemn call of 
the deputies at a sitting protracted for days ; and the 
spectacle of the vast dim hall, of the shadowy figures 
of the awestruck judges meting out the fate of their 



84 The Convention, ch. v. 

former Sovereign, and tier upon tier of half-seen faces, 
looking, as in a theatre, on the drama below, and break- 
ing out into discordant clamor, made a fearful impres- 
sion on many eye-witnesses. One vote excited a sensa- 
tion of disgust even among the most ruthless chiefs of 
the Mountain, though it was remarked that many of the 
abandoned women who crowded the galleries shrieked 
approbation. The Duke of Orleans, whose Jacobin pro- 
fessions had caused him to be returned for Paris, with a 
voice in which effrontery mingled with terror, pro- 
nounced for the immediate execution of his kinsman. 
^ . . The minister of justice — Danton had re- 

Execution of _ •' 

Louis XVI. signed — announced on the 20th the sen- 

Jan. 21, 1793. , _;^. ,^, . . , 

tence to the Kmg. The captive received 
the message calmly, asked for three days to get ready 
to die (a request, however, at once refused), and prayed 
that he might see his family and have a confessor. A 
few hours afterwards the doors of his room were opened 
by the officers of the Commune, who stood looking on 
without saying a word ; and the Queen, Madame Eliza- 
beth, and the two royal children, were locked in the 
arms of the doomed monarch. Why raise the veil on 
the agony of that scene ; why note too curiously the 
mute resignation, the passionate tears, the heart-wrung 
grief, of that tragic and woful parting ? Early next 
morning, after a tranquil night, Louis rose and gave his 
single attendant a wedding-ring as a token for his wife. 
He had promised to see his family again, but he wished 
to spare them the pangs of the interview. Soon after- 
wards he received the sacrament from the Abbe Edge- 
worth, a non-juring priest, who did his holy office at the 
peril of his life ; and he remained for some time in fer- 
vent prayer, undisturbed by the sounds that rolled 
around the prison. At about eight the municipal officers 



1792. The Convention. 85 

announced curtly that the hour had come ; and the 
King obeyed, after a few words of request that care 
would be taken of a will that he had made, and that a 
sum of money should be repaid to his counsel. He then 
quietly stepped into a carriage drawn up in the midst of 
a dense mass of bayonets, and with his faithful confessor 
by his side, repeated the solemn prayers for the dying, 
apparently unconscious of surrounding objects. The 
melancholy procession threaded its way through long- 
drawn lines of National Guards ranged on either side of 
the streets ; and though a few sounds of anger or com- 
passion were heard, the bystanders were rare, and for 
the most part silent, and shops were shut and windows 
closed along the course of that sad journey. For the 
moment pity and fear were in the minds of men; and, 
in the presence of the terrible fate about to reach the 
descendant of a hundred Kings, even revolutionary 
frenzy was hushed, and the tongues of the most reckless 
were dumb. At ten the carriage reached a square space 
in view of the high front of the Tuileries ; and here, 
near a broken statue of Louis XV., rose the guillotine, 
a new instrument of death. Around were deep rows of 
horsemen and cannon, their sabres drawn and their 
matches lit ; a vast multitude had collected too ; and 
amidst the rabble of the streets was seen the familiar 
face of the Duke of Orleans, come again to confess his 
Jacobin faith. After an ineffectual attempt to address 
the people, drowned by the rattle o-f a hundred drums, 
the victim was placed beneath the high-raised axe ; and, 
as the head fell, shouts of exultation burst from the lips 
of the vile populace, charmed hitherto as it were by a 
palsying spell, and a weight seemed lifted from the 
breasts of all. 

The execution of Louis XVL was one of those poll- 



S6 The Convefition. ch. v. 

Reflections tical faults which are worse than crimes. 

on this event. , . , . . . -r^ 

It caused profound indignation in Europe, 
promoted anarchy and license, and enlisted univer- 
sal sympathy for the discrowned martyr who had 
borne himself so meekly in death. Those who wield 
power ought not to forget that a policy of bloodshed is 
always dangerous ; and, when an august victim is se- 
lected to fall, the reaction of sentiment is sometimes 
wonderful. The trial, too — a mere party struggle before 
a popular Assembly — was a mockery of justice; and the 
King was innocent of the greater part of the heinous ac- 
cusations made against him. But if the question be 
whether Louis XVI. had kept faith with the French 
people, and had acted in the spirit of the institutions 
which he had sworn to respect and uphold. History can- 
not record a verdict for him ; and though he deprecated 
foreign invasion, he encouraged and dealt with the na- 
tional enemy in an audacious attack on national rights. 

Undoubtedly, unlike our Charles I., he was 

Character . ., j- i • • i i. 

and con- i^ot, as it Were, false on principle ; he was 

^ct of the j^Q^ g^i^jg enough to show kingcraft, and in 
his private life he was a good man, though 
wanting in moral and social dignity. But he repeatedly 
crossed the will of his subjects in a manner that looked 
like studied perfidy ; and he appeared to betray the dear- 
est interests of France at a crisis when her existence 
was at stake — a more fatal position than any in which 
Charles I. was placed by the hand of Fortune. That 
this tortuous conduct was due to weakness, amounting 
to imbecility, is no doubt true. His situation also was 
extremely difficult ; and if we judge of his acts merely 
by their moral quality, we may admit that he was con- 
tinually under the influence of unwise or evil counsel- 
lors. But Frenchmen, in a moment of national peril, 



1793' '^^^^ Convention. 87 

could not draw, or trust to, distinctions like these ; and 
had Louis been deposed when the war broke out, or 
even after the flight to Varennes, they would have been 
fully justified in the sight of posterity. 
The death of the King proved the signal 

. , ... f. ^ . ^ Coalition of 

for a general coalition 01 iLurope against Europe 
France. Such a League, indeed, had been fvance. 
already gathering, for the crusade of liberty 
which the Convention preached had exasperated every 
settled government ; and the progress, besides, of the 
French arms had been in the highest degree alarming. 
After his success at Valmy Dumouriez had carried the 
war boldly into the Low Countries, and had won a bril- 
liant victory at Jemmapes, and by the early 
spring he had overrun Belgium, had ad- je^mmapes 
vanced to the banks of the Lower Meuse, ^"^ „y ,, 

' successes of 

and had made an audacious raid into Hoi- the French, 

Nov. . Dec- 

land. Another French army had seized 1792; Jan.,' 
Savoy and Nice ; and a third, under Cus- ^ '' ^^^•^' 
tine, had crossed the Palatinate, had taken possession 
of the great fortress of Mayence, and was even threat- 
ening Germany beyond the Rhine. It is not strange that 
the old Powers of the Continent should have viewed 
these invasions with hatred and fear ; for the results, 
though caused to a certain extent by the renewed dis- 
sensions of Austria and Prussia, were evidently in the 
main due to the astonishing force of the new ideas 
which spread with the march of the French troops, and 
led everywhere to popular risings ; and the Autocracy 
and Feudalism of the eighteenth century were almost 
necessarily led to combine against the principles of the 
French Revolution, which, overflowing its natural bor- 
ders, was threatening with ruin their decaying author- 
ity. No definite alliances, however, had yet been made, 



^8 The Convention. ch. v. 

and all was mere hesitation and doubt, until the execu- 
tion of Louis XVI. fused suddenly together these blend- 
ing elements, and united the rulers of all the Continental 
States in what they called a holy war against regicide, 
undertaken in the cause of God and of order. The 
princes of Germany followed the example already set 
by her leading Sovereign ; Spain joined Piedmont for 
some time in arms ; the little governments of Italy de- 
nounced France ; and even Russia and Sweden stirred 
in their frozen deserts against the common enemy, 
England, too, was swept into the general movement, for 
the attack on Belgium had added strength to royal and 
aristocratic passions, and the middle classes were 
shocked and disgusted at the scenes which had taken 
place in Paris ; and, amidst the exultation of the Tory 
party, supported by the great Whig secession, Mr. Pitt 
was forced into a war which he had earnestly labored 
to avert.* By February and March, 1793, the allied 

* Having reached the second year of the war, I must refer to a 
few authorities on the subject. A really scientific and yet popular 
history of the contest in a tolerably small compass is still, perhaps, 
a desideratum, though an approach to such a work has been made 
by Colonel Hamley in his Operations of War, in which some of 
the most important campaigns, from 1796 to 1815, have been re- 
viewed with real insight and perfect fairness. The war, however, 
has been illustrated, in its minutest details, in numerous elaborate 
Histories and Memoirs, and few subjects have been treated with 
equal ability, Jomini has commented fully on the Revolutionary 
g.nd Napoleonic campaigns ; and M. Thiers, in his Histoire de la 
Revolution Francaise, has described the first in his usual perspicu- 
ous style, and with less partiality than he has shown in his second 
great work. As an account of the memorable campaigns of Italy 
and Germany in 1796, and of the campaigns of 1799 and 1800, ' 
Napoleon's Commentaries are, in many respects, unrivalled; but 
the Emperor is sometimes inaccurate and unjust, though incom- 



1793- ^^^ Convention. 89* 

armies were all in motion ; and while France was 
threatened from the Alps and the Pyrenees, what seemed 
an overwhelming tide of invasion, extending from the 

parable as a critic of military combinations. The History of the 
Consulate and Empire, by M. Thiers, is a magnificent monument 
to Napoleon as a warrior ; but the narrative of his exploits and those 
of the Grand Army is generally one-sided and flattering, and should 
be continually checked by those of German and English writers. 
The campaign of 1805 is very well analyzed by Colonel von Bris- 
tow; Thiers, Alison, and Jomini maybe compared for those of 1806 
and 1807; and valuable papers on the operations round Ulm, and 
in Poland, will be found in the Staff College Essays by Lieutenant 
Baring. For the history of the war in Spain and Portugal, from 
1808 to 1814, the English reader will, of course, turn to the brilliant 
and exhaustive work of Napier; and the campaign of 1809 in 
Austria is well described by Generals Pelet and Stutterheim, The 
Russian campaign has been admirably criticised by Clausewitz and 
Jomini, and delineated with more or less accuracy by Segur and 
Chambray. For the great struggle of 1813 and 1814 see the work 
of Plotho, and the narratives of Muffling, Gneisenau, and Bulow ; 
on the French side, besides Thiers, the Memoirs of Marshal Mar- 
mont will be found useful. As for the Waterloo campaign, the 
authorities are almost innumerable. Mr. Hooper's account is ex- 
ceedingly able and concise, but it errs on the side of praise of Wel- 
lington. Colonel Chesney, in his Lectures on the Campaign of 
1815, has done justice to the part played by the Prussians in decid- 
ing the issue; Clausewitz and Miiffling have also brought out clearly 
this feature of the contest ; and the treatise of General Shaw Ken- 
nedy contains many valuable remarks. On the French side the 
Commentaries of Napoleon, though very unjust to his adversaries, 
deserve careful study; and Jomini's Precis of the campaign of 1815 
seems to me very judicious in its general conclusions. Of later 
French writers, Thiers and La Tour D'Auvergne should be read as 
apologists for Napoleon, and Charras and Quinet as professed de- 
tractors and censors ; but the work of Charras, able as it is, seems 
to me unsound and unfair. For the all-important question of the 
operations of Grouchy, see the pamphlet of that general, and the 



90 The Convention. gh. v, 

Scheldt to the Rhine, rolled towards her eastern and 
northern frontiers. 

During these events the struggle between the parties 

and factions which divided France had 

struggle^ of been growing more and more fierce. The 

parties in vacillation of the Moderates and the Gi- 

r ranee. 

ronde on the occasion of the trial of the 
King had increased the power of the mob leaders ; and 
Robespierre, who was beginning to rise into influence 
by a fanatical parade of republican doctrines, and 
through a reputation of austere probity, found many op- 
portunities to denounce what he called the " royalism of 
the Convention." Expressions, too, of the Gironde 
orators were tortured into charges that the whole party 
wished to divide France into a Federation of States ; and 

this aroused intense indignation in Paris, 
Gironde more especially when it was artfully pro- 

by the claimed that these fine talkers had proposed 

and°Dema- ^^ dcsert the Capital, a few months before, at 
gogues. the approach of danger. The Gironde re- 

criminated by fierce invectives against the Jacobins and 
the Duke of Orleans, whom they accused of secretly as- 
piring to the throne ; but, though in the Convention they 
were still supreme, the revolutionary forces acquired 
strength, and they suffered from the inevitable results 
of new and almost usurped authority. The strife of 

clear but somewhat too sanguine observations of Marshal Gerard. 
In addition to these and many other works on the war, the diligent 
reader should continually refer to the Correspondence of Napoleon, 
the Despatches of the Duke of Welhngton, and the admirable mili- 
tary works of the Archduke Charles. The Military Souvenirs of 
the Due de Fezensac are perhaps the best extant records of the 
characteristics and composition of the Grand Army. The naval 
operations of the period are set forth in the fullest detail in James's 
History. 



1793- -^^^ Convention, 91 

which Paris was the centre appeared in a thousand forms 
throughout the rest of France, and usually with the same 
results ; the middle classes and wealthier orders being 
for the most part on the side of the Moderates ; the poor, 
the reckless, and the discontented, taking part with the 
anarchists and growing in power. All the mischiefs, 
too, which had already arisen from the influence exer- 
cised by mere demagogues over the local authorities 
throughout the country ; from the issue of assignats, now 
more excessive than ever ; from the decline ^. 

r 1 I'll Distress 

of trade which had progressed steadily, and and social 
from the pressure of poverty continually on 
the increase ; began to tell with extraordinary force at 
this juncture against the upholders of social order. The 
rise of prices almost inevitably led to a demand that they 
should be fixed by the State ; and measures of commu- 
nism and of a maximum rate for all the principal neces- 
saries of life were clamored for by the popular chiefs 
and by the masses who looked up to them. It was in 
vain that the leaders of the Convention condemned such 
expedients as worse than useless ; it is always difficult 
to argue with hungry men ; and when Marat, with the 
approbation of many in the Commune, declared " what 
the poor wanted was to hang the grocers," he found 
thousands to echo the frightful sentiment. 

Meanwhile the forces of the Coalition, 
though feebly directed and advancing slow- the Coalition, 
ly, had been make alarming progress. On the Rhine 
Custine had been driven into Alsace, and Mayence was 
besieged by the Prussians and Austrians, as a prelimi- 
nary step to further movements. Before long Dumouriez 
lost a great battle, at Neerwinden, and fell „ , ,^, 

f ' Battle of Neer- 

back m disorder, through Belgium, upon winden, March 
the French frontier ; the young recruits, ^ ' ^^^^" 



92 The Convetition. ch. v. 

who formed a part of his army, disbanding at the first 
reverse in thousands. The North of France was thus 
threatened with invasion again ; and the peril was in- 
creased by a quarrel between Dumouriez and the Con- 
vention, which repeated disasters envenomed and 
brought to an ominous issue. Dumouriez had con- 
demned the execution of Louis XVI. and the revolution- 
ary address to foreign nations ; he complained that 
Jacobin sentiments destroyed discipline, and that Bel-, 
gium was pillaged by the Jacobin emissaries, who had 
already associated liberty and rapine ; and, having been 
called to account for his conduct, he abandoned, like 
Lafayette, his command, and left his army without a 
Flight of leader. At the same time intelligence 

Dumouriez. arrived of a royalist insurrection in the 

He throws up _ •' 

his command. West ; and in more than one of the cities 
of the South, especially where the influence of the 
Gironde was great, the long-standing feud between the 
rich and the poor broke out into open civil war, and the 
upper classes denounced angrily the Jacobins and the 
mobs of Paris. These reiterated misfortunes of course 
embittered the strife of parties in the Convention and 
outside it; and in the explosion of passion which ensued 
everything tended to weaken the power of the Moder- 
ates and to secure ultimate success to their foes. Dan- 
ton, always prominent in the hour of dan- 
Increasing 1 /- r 1 1 r 
power of the ger, had, at the first news of the deieats m 

fcmon.^' the North, brought forward a series of revo- 

His energy. lutionary schemes ; and he now insisted 
that the one thought of Frenchmen ought to be to save 
and defend the Repubhc by any expedients, however 
desperate. The isolation of the ministry from the Legis- 
lature, which had been continued up to this time, being 
obviously injurious at a great crisis, he obtained a de- 



1793* The Co7ive}iHon. 93 

cree by which a small cabinet, chosen within the Con- 
vention, became invested with what was practically- 
supreme authority ; and thus began the 
Committee of Public Safety, the most terri- the Committee 
ble dictatorship, perhaps, which modern or safe"y,'^Aprii 
ancient times ever witnessed. A second ^' ^793- 
committee, called that of General Security, formed at 
his instance, obtained the superintendence of all the 
higher police of the country ; and he procured decrees 
for the arrest of all suspected persons and the establish- 
ment of an extraordinary tribunal, free from most of the 
safeguards and checks of procedure, to coerce and 
terrify what he called the factions. By these means the 
foundations of a formidable power were laid, which 
might become a tremendous despotism ; and, in order 
to provide for the national defence, Danton urged not 
only that energetic efforts should be at once violent 
made to recruit ,the armies, but that, if "^(fgg^^J'b^^ ^^°' 
necessary, the whole youth of the country Danton, 
should be placed at the disposal of the State. To obtain 
the willing support of the masses, he advocated, besides, 
an excessive tax on the rich, violent measures to keep 
up the value of assignats, and, above all, the maximum 
of prices, the cherished scheme of^the Parisian dema- 
gogues. " Blast my memory," he exclaimed, in one of 
those harangues which electrified the Convention with 
their rude force, " but stop at nothing to save your 
country." 

These impassioned appeals, in which we trace a 
strange mixture of true insight, of absurdity, and of 
mere popularity-seeking, were of course supported by 
the Jacobin leaders ; and, under the pres- ^^^ decreed 
sure of danger, a great part of the policy of ^7 Conven- 
Danton, as we have seen, received the 



94 



The Convention. ch. v. 



Propositions assent of the alarmed Convention. At the 

of the Com- . ... 

mune of Paris, same time the Commune of Pans threw 
itself boldly into the general movement, and openly as- 
serting its independence, prepared an armed force to be- 
sent to the frontier, and called on the other cities of 
France to follow its example. Meanwhile, the ma- 
chinery of agitation was plied with ever-increasing 
energy ; the populace were told that now was the time 
for patriots, and that whoever opposed them were the 
foes of France ; and while the Convention despatched 
commissioners to visit the armies and collect recruits, 
the revolutionary organization which overspread the 
country promoted whatever Jacobinism wished in the 
name of the national independence at stake. 

The party of ^ . 

violence gene- The general result was to give overwhelm- 
ra y prevai s. ^^^ strength to the rapidly growing insur- 
rectionary forces ; and even in the Convention the vio- 
lent Mountain began ere long to become ascendant, 
and the uncertain and feeble Plain to gravitate by degrees 
to the more audacious party. This consummation was 
accelerated by the Moderates, and especially by the 
chiefs of the Gironde, at this great and terrible crisis. 
As patriotic as their opponents at least, but fearful of 
revolutionary projects; and with no hold on the popular 
masses, they had supported a part of Danton's policy ; 
_, ^. , but they denounced as schemes of demo- 

Ihe Girondes . ' - 

and Moderates cratic tyranny the extraordinary tribunal 
extrenie^ and the Committee of Public Safety ; and 

measures. they resisted the maximum and the tax on 

the rich, as projects of robbery in the name of law, 
though precedents for communism were not wanting. 
Thus, at a moment of extraordinary peril, they thwarted 
what was passionately announced as necessary to the 
National Safety ; and they crossed what its leaders took 



1793- ^<^ Convention. 95 

care to proclaim was the declared will of the Sove- 
reign People, and what certainly was the desire of the 
mob. Nor was even this the limit of what their ad- 
versaries called their crimes against the State. They had 
obtained a commission of twelve deputies to inquire into 
the arbitrary acts of the Commune ; and The Commis- 
this body had ordered two of the worst =^0" of Twelve. 
of the demagogues to be put on their trial.. They had, 
besides, insisted on impeaching Marat, had proposed to 
break up the Commune of Paris, and to surround the 
Convention with a guard from the Provinces ; and one 
of their members'had incautiously exclaimed that "if a 
hair on the head of a deputy were touched Paris would 
be blotted out of the list of cities." 

Thus, at a crisis of national danger, the ^, , 

^ The forces of 

forces of anarchy, which had been merely anarchy become 
held in check, and had long ceased to be ^"P^^"^^* 
^under control, rose again, sustained by what seemed to 
be the patriotic sentiment of France ; while the party of 
order appeared vacillating, incapable of a bold resolu- 
tion, and opposed to the popular demands, and it lost 
weight even in the national representation. Danton tries in 

Danton, with a singleness of purpose which vaintorecon- 

' • °_ . cue the con- 

marks him off, stained with blood as he tending 

^ , ■■ , parties. 

was, from the worse demagogues, endea- 
vored to reconcile the contending factions and to unite 
the Jacobin and Gironde leaders ; but his attempts were 
fruitless, for it was a death-struggle. The Death struggle 
Marats and Robespierres hounded on the Modiemes and 
mob against what they stigmatized as a Jacobins, 
party in league for a long time to break up the Repub- 
lic, and now openly plotting against France ; and all 
patriots were adjured to support the cause of the people 
and of national right. The Gironde retaliated by de- 



96 The Convention. ch. v. 

nouncing the assassins of Septembei , and the fomenters 
of trouble ; but their influence daily became more weak, 
and power, even in the Convention, shifted from the 
Moderates, while they had nothing to oppose to the 
Commune, the Jacobins, and the Parisian populace. In 
this state of things their fall was at hand, and the 
Rising of May ^^1^ was not slow to arrive. An insurrec- 
31 and June 2, tion Very similar to that of August lo, 

was planned and organized ; delegates 
from the sections of the popular type entered the 
Town Hall by a preconcerted arrangement, and sud- 
denly usurped the powers of the Commune ; and on 
May 31 a great armed force invaded the Convention, 
and obtained from the deputies a decree to extinguish 
the Commission of Twelve, amidst frantic shouts against 
"Moderates," "Federalists," "Gironde traitors," and 

"otherenemies of France." On June 2 eighty 
Moderates. thousand national guards hemmed in the 

Convention, with cannon in their front; and 
a demand was made by the now audacious Mountain, 
supported by a threatening multitude, that twenty-two 
of the Gironde leaders should be given up and im- 
peached for their crimes. A few courageous men pro- 
tested in vain ; the Plain fell off from the losing side, 
and the Convention decreed what was sought from it, in 
a state of doubt, uncertainty, and terror. The twenty- 
two, with seven names added, were surrounded and 
placed under arrest, and, the chiefs of the Moderates 
being struck down, the triumph of Jacobinism was com- 
plete. Thenceforward hardly anything remained to 
check the forces of anarchy in their career ; the Conven- 
tion was to follow the impulse of the Commune, and to 
yield obedience to the same leaders, and the Revolu- 
tion was to enter on its most appalling phased " 



1793- '^^^^ Convention. 97 

The fall of the Moderates and the Gironde _ „ . 

Reflections 

was ^n a great part due to the causes which on this event. 
had produced the previous outbreak of 
August 10. General alarm, the result of foreign inva- 
sion, made the elements of disorder and passion, already 
too powerful, completely ascendant; and a sentiment 
that the National cause and that of the extreme revolu- 
tionists was one, concurred with all the many incentives 
which acted on the discontented and poor to precipitate 
and assure the catastrophe. As for the defeated party, 
it was as attached to France and her interests as its op- 
ponents could be ; and there is no reason to suppose 
that, had it continued in power, the Republic would 
have succumbed to the Allies. But the Moderates and 
the Gironde were wanting in the audacity and reckless- 
ness which almost always obtain a mastery in violent 
revolutions ; and their fate illustrates a general law of 
History. 



CHAPTER VL 

THE REIGN OF TERROR. 

The revolution of June 2 having given the Triumph of 
party of violence power, its leaders pro- violence^in the 
ceeded to strengthen themselves in the po- <-^onvention. 
sition they had unscrupulously won. Commanding the 
Commune of Paris and most of the sections, and at last 
dominant in the Convention, they held the reins of 
government in their hands ; and their influence was sus- 
tained throughout France by Jacobinism, by the wants 
of the masses, and, largely, by national interests and 
H 



98 The Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

sentiments. Whatever portion of the policy of Danton 
remained incomplete was now put in force ; and while 
efforts were made to resist the Coalition with renewed 
energy, it was sought to extend and confirm everywhere 
the authority of the victorious demagogues by th ^ de- 
vices so often tried with success. The forces of ^hy 
were not, however, to triumph without prov 
^ . sistance anarchic as themselves, . 

Risings ... 

against it in was for somc time to be torn, m 

the Provinces; <- -i r ^ r • -i j* 

civil war. sencc of her foes, by fierce civil disse. 

Some of the Gironde leaders escaped 
arrest, and these, with other chiefs of the party, «. 
deavored to excite a general rising against what the_) 
justly described as Jacobin tyranny. Before long symp- 
toms of discontent appeared even in many of the Pro- 
vinces attached to the principles of the Revolution ; 
and, at the intelligence of the fall of the Moderates, the 
angry war of class in the cities of the South broke out 
into inexpressible fury. Within a month after the strug- 
gle of June 2, a large part of Normandy was in insur- 
rection ; threatening sounds were heard in Burgundy 
and Alsace, in Tranche Comte, Dauphiny, and Langue- 
doc ; and the wealthier orders being for the moment in 
the ascendant, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Toulouse, and 
Grenoble, stood in open revolt against the central 
government, to be soon followed by Toulon and Lyons. 
Meanwhile the disturbances in the West, which had been 
menacing for some time, assumed suddenly immense 
propoKtions ; and in Poitou, Anjou, and a part of Brit- 
tany, thousands of armed men rose up to defy an irre- 
ligious and regicide Republic, to the rallying cry of 
, " God and the King." In these secluded 

Beginning of - ,. . , . i j r 

the war of and remote districts the seigneurs had tor 
La Vendue. ^^ xixo'EX part lived on their lands, and the 



1793- '^he Reign of Terror. 99 

influence of the Church was kindly and great ; and the 
peasantry, accordingly, had cared little even for the 
good which the Revolution had done them. But when 
that event had brought with it the spoliation of the land- 
lords they revered, and terrible laws against their be- 
loved priests, they had given proofs of angry irritation, 
and, at the news of the death of Louis XVI., they had 
expressed their indignation in passionate risings. The 
severe means by which the government forced their 
sons to fight for a detested cause filled up the measure 
of their discontent, and by the middle of 1793 they had 
formed great insurrectionary bands, which were to 
prove far from contemptible foes. Such was the begin- 
ning of the celebrated war of La Vendee — so called 
from a Department of that name — one of the darkest 
episodes in the revolutionary drama. 

These perils, though added to those of for- ^ 

^ . ° Energetic 

eign war, did not, however, prostrate the measures of 

^ ,1 1 Danton and 

energies of the men who were now su- the leaders in 
preme in France. Vile and worthless as p^^^"^- 
many of these leaders were, some were not wanting in 
daring and constancy ; and Danton urged the Govern- 
ing Powers to redoubled efforts. A levy of three hundred 
thousand men which had been voted was ordered to the 
frontier ; and while preparations were made to enforce 
the decree for what was called "levee en masse," the 
Jacobin leaders turned against their domes- The lev6e en 
tic foes. The extraordinary force which ™^se. 
had been set on foot in Paris, and which received the 
name of the revolutionary army, was marched against 
the insurgent districts, with as many National Guards as 
could be spared; the cities in revolt were summoned to 
yield ; and emissaries were despatched to stir up the 
masses against the " enemies of France and the allies 



loo The Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

TheConstitu- ^^ ^he Stranger." Meanwhile a Constitu- 
tion of 1793. tion of the most democratic type was offered 
as a rallying-point to the People ; good patriots were 
commanded to form everywhere revolutionary com- 
mittees to support their leaders ; the maximum and the 
The maxi- tax on the rich were announced as assuring 
Rewlutioimry Universal comfort to the poou; and the 
Tribunal. extraordinary, now styled the Revolution- 

ary Tribunal, began to send daily its victims to the 
guillotine, while the prisons were filled with suspected 
persons. These measures were attended with astonish- 
ing success, though, but for deeper causes, they would 
have certainly failed. Lyons and Toulon, indeed,Jong 
remained in arms ; and the rising of La Vendee, sus- 
tained by a principle, and at first encountered only by 
levies of recruits, became in the highest degree formi- 
T,, . . . dable. But the insurrection in the North 

Ihe risings in , _ 

part of France was quickly dissipated; most of the Pro- 
quelled. . , . , , ^ 

vmces became soon quiescent; and before 

long nearly all the Southern cities were overawed or 
tamed into submission. This rapid collapse, as we have 
said, was due to causes beyond the mere acts of the 
Jacobins, though these unquestionably were not fruitless. 
The authority of the central government was immense ; 
and when Jacobinism had laid hold of the capital it 
quickly triumphed in other parts of the country, already 
largely controlled by it. Besides, the feud which di- 
vided France was generally one between the needy 
and the well-off; and in the existing state of all in- 
stitutions, the needy were certain to prevail, even apart 
from the tremendous stimulants supplied lavishly to the 
wildest passions. Moreover, strongest motive of all, 
the cause continued in full force which had made 
Jacobinism succeed at first ; and it seemed treason to 



1793- "^^^^ Rtign of Tei'ror. loi 

the State, and fatal to France, and to all that had been 
done since 1789, to oppose Danton and his supporters 
when they hurled defiance against the foreign invader. 
From these causes the civil war in which France for 
a moment appeared engulfed was soon 
confined to a few narrowing centres. What, of the 
in the meantime, had been the achieve- 
ments of the mighty Coalition of banded Europe ? Suc- 
cess, that might have been great, was attained on the 
Alpine and Pyrenean frontiers ; and had the Piedmontese 
and Spaniards been well led they could have overrun 
Provence and Rousillon, and made the insurrection of 
the South fatal. But here, as elsewhere, the Allies did 
little ; and, though defeated in almost every encounteT, 
the republican levies held their ground against enemies 
who nowhere advance^. It was, however, in the North and 
the North-east that the real prize of victory was placed ; 
and no doubt can exist that had unanimity in the coun- 
cils of the Coalition prevailed, or had a great com- 
mander been in its camp, Paris might have been cap- 
tured without difficulty, and the Revolution been sum- 
marily put down. But the Austrians, the Prussians, and 
the English, were divided in mind ; they had no General 
capable of rising above the most ordinary routine of 
war ; and the result was that the allied armies advanced 
tardily on an immense front, each leader thinking of 
Jiis own plans only, and no one venturing to press 
forward boldly, or to pass the fortresses on the hostile 
frontiers, though obstacles like these could be of little 
use without the aid of powerful forces in the 
field. In this manner half the summer was time,^^n^ ° 
lost in besieging Mayence, Valenciennes, dissensions 
and Conde ; and when, after the fall of 
these places, an attempt was made to invade Picardy, 



I02 The Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

dissensions between the Allies broke out, and the British 
contingent was detached to besiege Dunkirk, while the 
Austrians lingered in French Flanders, intent on enlar- 
ging by conquest Belgium, at that period an Austrian 
Province. Time was thus gained for the French armies, 
which, though they had made an honorable resistance, 
had been obliged to fall, back at all points, and were in 
no condition to oppose their enemy ; and the French 
army in the North, though driven nearly to the Somme, 
within a few marches of the capital, was allowed an op- 
portunity to recruit its strength, and was not, as it might 
have been easily, destroyed. A part of the hastily raised 
levies was now incorporated in its ranks ; and as these 
were largely composed of seasoned men from the old army 
of the Bourbon Monarchy, and from the volunteers of 
Valmy and Jemmapes, a respectable force Was before 
long mustered. At the peremptory command of the Jaco- 
bin Government, this was at once directed against the in- 
vaders, who did not know what an invasion meant. The 

Sep. 8 Duke of York, assailed with vigor and skill, 

^793- was compelled to raise the siege of Dunkirk ; 

and, to the astonishment of Europe, the divided forces 
of the halting and irresolute Coalition began to recede 
before the enemies, who saw victory yielded to them, 
and who, feeble soldiers as they often were, were never- 
theless fired by ardent patriotism. 

As the autumn closed the trembling balance 

successftd^at'*^ o^ fortune inclined decidedly on the side of 

abroad"^ the Republic. The French recruits, hurried 

to the frontiers in masses, became gradually 

better soldiers, ^nder the influence of increasing success. 

Carnot,* a man of great but overrated pow- 

Hoche." ^^^' took the general direction of. military 

*Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot was born in 1753, and 



1793- The Reign of Terror. 103 

affairs ; and though his strategy was not sound, it was 
much better than the imbecihty of his foes. At the 
same time, the Generals of the fallen Monarchy having 
disappeared, or, for the most part, failed, brilliant names 
began to emerge from the ranks, and to lead the sud- 
denly raised armies ; and though worthless selections 
were not seldom made, more than one private and ser- 
geant gave proof of capacity of no common order. Ter- 
ror certainly added strength to patriotism, for thousands 
were driven to the camp by force, and death was the 
usual penalty of a defeated chief; but it was not the less 
a great na,tional movement, and high honor is justly due 
to a people which, in a situation that might have seemed 
hopeless, made such heroic and noble efforts, even though 
it triumphed through the weakness of its foe. Owing to 
a happy inspiration of Carnot, a detachment was rapidly 
marched from the Rhine, where the Prussians remained 
in. complete inaction ; and with this reinforcement 
Jourdan gained a victory at Wattignies over the Aus- 

trians, and opened the way into .the Low ^ , -„^ 

' ^ • Battle of Wat- 

Countries. At the close of the year the tignies, Octo- 

youthful Hoche, once a corporal, but a man ^^ ^ ' ^^^^" 

of genius, who had given studious hours to the theory 

brought up to be an engineer. He distinguished himself in his pro- 
fession, and at the crisis of 1793 was made Minister of War, and 
became one of the Members of the Committee of Public Safety. 
His energy was above praise ; but though it has been said of him 
that "he organized victory," his military schemes were often un- 
sound. He was, however, the only member of the Committee whose 
hands were, in some degree, free from the stain of blood. In after 
life he was exiled, opposed the Empire, supported it in the hour of 
danger, distinguished himself for his defence of Antwerp, and 
served as Minister of the Interior during the Hundred Days. He 
outlived Waterloo several years. 



104 "^^^^ Reig}i of Terro7\ ch. vi. 

of war, divided Brunswick from the Austrian Wiirmser by 
a daring and able march through the Vosges ; and the 
baffled Allies were driven out of Alsace, the borders of 
which they had just invaded. By these operations the 
great Northern frontier, the really vulnerable part of 
France, was almost freed from the invaders' presence ; 
and, though less was achieved on the Southern frontier, 
the enemies of the Republic began to lose 
October 9fi°793. courage. Meanwhile Lyons had fallen after 
a terrible siege ; and though the struggle in 
La Vendue was not over, the cause of the royalists was 
rapidly declining. On this theatre the Catholic army, as 
it called itself, had won a series of triumphs ; and the 
peasant bands, commanded by their seigneurs, and 
largely composed of excellent marksmen, proved more 
than a match, in an intricate country, for revolu- 
tionary recruits and generals chosen from the noisest 
spouters of the Commune of Paris. At last, however, 
the garrison of Mayence, and a real commander, Kleber, 
appeared on the scene ; and science and skill inevitably 
prevailed, though the contest was protracted and desper- 
ate. After the loss of a great battle at Cho- 
of the^ Vende- l^t» ^^^ Poitou, the Vcndeans were driven 
ansatSavenay, north of the Loire ; and before long the 

JJec. 23, 1793. ' . *^ . 

remains of their forces were well-nigh anni- 
hilated on the field of Savenay. The insurrection had been 
so formidable that a few months before they might not im- 
probably have marched to Paris and seized the capital. 
Towards the end of December a me- 

Siege and ,,..i 1 1 1 r ^ 

fall of Toulon, morable mcident brought the eventful 
ec. 19, 1793- struggle of the year to a close. Toulon had, 
as we have seen, revolted ; and the citizens of the upper 
and middle classes had unhappily called in the allies to 
aid them. An Enghsh and Spanish fleet, accordingly, 



1793* The -Reign of Terror. 105 

had taken possession of the port and the arsenal ; and 
though the town had been partly invested, the siege, 
conducted by incapable men, made no progress for 
several months. A plan of attack was at last despatched 
from Paris ; but at a council of war a youthful artillery 
officer, as yet only in a subordinate rank, observed that 
regular approaches were useless, and that if a point 
were taken which commanded the roadstead, the allied 
fleets would certainly make off, and an immediate sur- 
render be the consequence. Putting his finger on a 
promontory marked on a map, he said de- ^. 

^ •' . ^ ^ J First appear- 

cidedly, " There is the key of Toulon ;" and ance on the 
his audience was so struck with the evident poieon Bona- 
truth that it ventured to neglect the govern- p^'^'^^* 
ment order, and allowed its young adviser to work out 
his project. After a sharp engagement the point was 
occupied ; and the French batteries had no sooner 
crowned the heights than the allied squadrons made 
haste to depart, and Toulon was in a few days in the 
hands of the victors. This remarkable exploit was the 
prelude to a career at which the world grew pale. The 
young artillery officer was Napoleon Bonaparte,* the 
mightiest product of the French Revolution. 
Meanwhile, under the double influence ^, ^ 

r /- • 1 M 1 1 TheKeign 

01 foreign war and peril at home, the of Terror, 
anarchic forces which had become ascendant had con- 
solidated themselves into a fearful tyranny, and the 
period known by the ominous name of the Reign of 
Terror had opened on France. The Convention, after 
the fall of the Moderates, became a mere instrument 

* The biographies of Napoleon are innumerable. A very able, 
but unfavorable, account of his early life and career, will be found 
in M. Lanfrey's Histoire de Napoleon I. 



io6 TJie Reign of Terror. CH. vi. 

^, ^ of the Jacobin chiefs r seventv-three of its 

The Conven- "^ ' 

tion, a mere members Were arrested for secret protest 
thejaccTbin" against the 2d of June; the Right, baffled 
leaders. ^^^ suspected, cease to struggle ; and 

the Plain registered the decrees of the Mountain, itself 
bowing in passive subjection to the terrible Committee 
The Com- ^^ Public Security. That Body, formed of 

mitteeofpub- extreme Jacobins, drew to itself all the 

lie Safety all • ^ r^ i • •, , • ■, 

powerful. powers m the btate ; and, with the national 

representation in its hands, and controlling and direct- 
ing the Committee of General Security, the Commune, 
the clubs, and the revolutionary committees which 
spread their network over the country, it exercised an 
appalling despotism. Under this extraor- 

Its tyranny f ^ , ^ - , , ■■ 

and terrible dmary scheme of government the whole re- 
expedients, r T- J -U 1 ^ 

sources of France were grasped by a knot 
of audacious and desperate men ; and the most violent 
effort ever beheld was m.ade, not only to crush the ene- 
mies of the State, but to turn society upside down, to 
subvert all its ordinary relations, to change the usages, 
the habits, and the faith of the nation, and to overbear 
opposition by sheer terror. The lev6e en masse was 
rigorously enforced, and every man, woman, and child 
in France was ordered to aid in the national defence, 
while the whole products of the country were declared 
to be "in requisition " for the use of the Republic. The 
lands and goods of i>?tigrSs and of prisoners of State 
were confiscated by a summary process ; and decrees 
of the most ferocious kind were levelled against the re- 
volted cities. Measures of frightful severity were taken 
against the unhappy class now known by the name of 
"suspects;" an ampler and freer sweep was given to 
the guillotine ; the Revolutionary Tribunal was made 
permanent ; and expedients, such as were never heard 



1793' The Reign of Ter7-or. 107 

of, were adopted to keep up the failing assignats, while 
the maximum was extended to almost all commodities ; 
attempts were made to regulate the consumption of the 
nation ; the National Debt was what was called repub- 
licanized, that is, to a great extent, wiped out ; and the 
systematic plunder of the rich became a regular device 
of government. Death was the normal penalty for the 
slightest complaint against this wide-spreading scheme 
of oppression ; nay, even for lukewarmness or "want of 
civism/' and a failure in the field was usually followed 
by a mandate from the Republican commissioners, who 
attended the armies, for speedy execution. ,„., , 

'■ •' Wild social 

At the same time a complete revolution was changes, 
made in dress, manners, and even modes of speech ; 
the very forms of language were violently changed ; the 
Calendar and the whole system of measures were trans- 
formed ; and though the Committee of Public Safety 
did not yet publicly proscribe the Christian faith, they 
regarded with aversion and distrust priests of all kinds, 

non-juring or otherwise; atheism was pro- , ^ . , 

-' ° ' \ Atheism de- 

claimed truth by the Commune of Paris — dared truth by 

, , . 1 , , . . J the Commune 

an example imitated by other cities ; and of Pans, 
the churches were everywhere handed over to the mu- 
nicipalities and local authorities, to be shut up or de- 
stroyed at their pleasure. 

The scenes witnessed during this strange . 

. ^ r . . . , , Appearance 

period of tyranny in union with popular of Paris 
license brought out human nature in its ReVgnof^ 
most stern, most terrible, and most ludicrous '^^'^^°^- 
aspects, Paris seemed turned into a vast camp, hun- 
dreds of smithies and forges filling the squares, for the 
manufacture of arms and cannon, the streets barricaded 
and patrolled by the pikemen, houses lettered with the 
names of their inmates ; while young men were hastily 



io8 TJie Reign of TciTor. ch. vi. 

drilled in thousands, old men and women were told off 
in bands " to excite patriots to revolutionary work," and 
children scraped lint and made bandages, amidst mob 
oratory and wild airs of music. Long lines of faces 
were seen at the bread-shops, waiting for the supplies 
fixed and priced by the State ; and government emissa- 
ries filled the establishments once dedicated to the 
splendor of Versailles, to enforce the maximum for 
*' good citizens." Informers crowded the banks and the 
Exchange, to mark down any one who dared to cheapen 
assignats ; and these pieces of paper, converted literally 
into tickets of plunder by the rule of terror, paid debts, 
and served to transfer commodities, at their nominal 
value, to some extent at least, although rapidly becoming 
worthless. Meanwhile commissioners, " in the name of 
the Republic," seized and piled in storehouses whatever 
was needed "for the armies of the patriotic poor;" and 
it fared badly with those who dared to look clean, to 
dress well, to wear a watch or a trinket ; for if not hur- 
ried off to prison as " suspects," they were freely relieved 
of superfluous luxuries. Similar sights were seen in 
other great cities ; and the chief roads swarmed with 
masses of recruits rolling to the frontier, in 
The levies varying moods of fear, regret, and fiery 

hurried to ^ ? , ., , , i , 

the frontier, exultation, whilc the crops, the stock, and 
the horses of the peasant, were numbered or 
taken by flocks of officials, their owners sometimes look- 
ing on in despair, but more often exclaiming that, after 
all, " France and the Revolution must be 
Appearance saved." The hall of the Convention, at the 

of the 

Convention. Same time, echoed with strange debates, 

and still stranger reports, in which a jargon 

of pagan antiquity mingled with vulgar ribaldry and the 

slang of fish-wives, vociferously applauded by overflow- 



1793- The Reign of Terror. 109 

ing galleries ; and the same eloquence was heard in all 
other assemblies, but usually at a still lower level. The 
prisons, meanwhile, grew more and more full with ever- 
increasing Usts of "suspects;" and even the fe^arful 
means by which they were cleared could not keep down 
the vast tale of victims. Nine or ten men, of whom the 
most conspicuous were Robespierre, St. Just, Couthon, 
Collot D'Herbois, Billaud Varennes, and Barere,* sate 
in a small closet in what had been the Tuileries palace, 
directing the immense organization of force by which 
France was moved and controlled. 

In this ecstacy of revolutionary passions j^j^^^j^^j^j, 
and overturn of social relations, whatever of society and 

.. , of morality. 

was most violent was sure to prevail ; tne 
long-standing vices and ills of the State provoked a re- 
tribution worse than themselves ; and the popular frenzy 
displayed itself in excesses of license which knew no 
limits. As has been observed in similar movements, 
the very signification of words was changed ; and piti- 
lessness became Republican virtue, moderation culpa- 
ble treason to France, inexorable severity patriotic de- 
votion, atrocious cruelty irregular justice. Then, too, 
were seen in their worst aspect the ill-will and hatred 
engendered by the differences of class in the old Mon- 
archy ; to be an " aristocrat " was in itself a crime : the 

* The leading Terrorists, as was the case too during the reign 
of the Commune of 1871, were for the most part men of low origin, 
and broken fortunes. St. Just, a fanatic like Robespierre, was an 
■ unknown student. Couthon was a cripple. Collot d'Herbois had 
been an actor hissed off the stage. Billaud Varennes had been 
expelled his father's house, and had been a tailor, an actor, and a 
dependent of the Jesuits. Bardre, the " Anacreon of the Guillo- 
tine," began life an obscure man of letters, and ended it a traitor 
and a spy. 



no The Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

few Nobles and prelates who lingered in France were 
either condemned, or usually shrank out of sight ; and 
the popular exasperation rose even fiercer against the 
professional and trading orders, the lawyers, the mer- 
chants, the employers of labor, the dependents of the 
Court, the old servants of the State, the horror-stricken 
^ , , reformers of 1780. In the jealousy against 

Cruelty and , ' ^ •' J b 

suspicions of all emmencc which prevailed, even the ar- 
p pu a e. istocracy of intellect was denounced ; men 

of letters and science were largely proscribed, and art 
and learning were either degraded to mean uses or were 

declared dangerous. Licentiousness, too, 
centiousness ' broke through all bounds in the general 

collapse of old -social restraints ; the in- 
crease of concubinage, of divorces, and of illegitimate 
births, alarmed even Jacobin politicians ; and the vices 
of the great were wildly imitated, with reckless inde- 
cency, by the multitude. Perhaps, however, the most 
striking sign of the times was the manner in which re- 
ligion was treated. Christianity-, we have said, was not 
yet disavowed by the State ; but in hundreds of places 
the churches were stripped of their ornaments by exult- 
ing mobs ; and the profession of atheism by the Com- 
mune of Paris was celebrated by a ceremony in which 
a painted harlot was installed in the aisles of Notre- 

Dame, and hailed as the Goddess of 

The Goddess ,.,.., .... 

of Reason at Reason ; while festivals, pagan in their cha- 

Notre Dame. , ^ j .1 i-r 

racter, commemorated the proline powers 
of the seasons. Too often, besides, priests were found 
who denied the faith of which they were living wit- 
nesses ; the mysteries of Christianity were profaned by 
one perjured bishop in a revolting parody; and much 
that was foul and hideous came out from under that 
august Church which had been long tainted by sin and 



1793- Tlie Reign of 7 error. iii 

corruption. Yet these blasphemies were by no means 
general ; and thousands of the clergy, pursued as they 
were by Jacobin suspicion, continued to perform their 
holy offices to reverent congregations, who still adhered 
to the creed of their fathers. Nor was all evil even in 
this fearful season of iTational trial and social subver- 
sion ; noble instances of fidelity and virtue were seen, 
apart from the patriotism, which inspired Frenchmen ; 
and a kind of distempered public spirit may be traced in 
the scheme of Jacobin policy, extravagant and ihiqui- 
tous as it was. 

The march, however, of the Reign of 
Terror has yet to be viewed in its most tra- prfsons. ^" -^^^ 
gic aspect. The prisons, we have said, 
were thronged with victims whom ferocious laws, or ruth- 
less suspicion, or private malice, sent to their precincts; 
and, in Paris alone, the number of captives was usually 
from five to six thousand persons. In these dark and 
terrible abodes were packed in masses — without regard 
to distinctions of rank, of age, of sex — the noble, the 
beautiful, the highly refined, with the vile, the worth- 
less, and the merely criminal ; the seigneur, the court 
dame, the man of taste, chiefs of the National and Le- 
gislative Assemblies, unfortunate generals, discarded 
magistrates, priests, merchants, and caterers for the 
luxury of Versailles, confusedly mingled with forgers 
and thieves, and the most degraded refuse of the streets. 
Eye-witnesses have left vivid descriptions of what oc- 
curred in these frightful Assemblies ; how human na- 
ture became desperate, or reckless, or callous, or even 
mirthful, under the influence of continued suffering ; 
how social differences were jealously preserved or van- 
ished in the presence of common peril ; and how virtue 
asserted its natural authority in the disappearance of 



112 The Reign of Terror, ch. vi. 

conventional forms ; and the depraved treated the good 
with respect, while they persecuted the vicious, what- 
The Revoiu- ^^^^ ^^^^^ Station. A collection of prison- 
tionary Tribu- gj-s was almost daily consigned to the Re- 
nal and its ,-r^ .1 i i i i i 

work. volutionary Tribunal ; and though that mur- 

derous court was not yet at its worst, its ordinary process 
was swift and fearful. The condemned were hurried off 
to the guillotine, and, in the presence of revelling crowds 
of the most ruthless and cruel populace, were usually 
slaughtered in batches at a time, amidst clamorous 
shouts of " Long live the RepubHc." So perished, with 
numbers of less known victims, not a few of the most 
illustrious names of France, surviving ornaments of the 
old order of things, brilliant popular leaders of a few 
years before. Several of the Gironde deputies had died 
miserably in the rising of June 2, and Petion, among 
them, had met a fate which History cannot call unde- 
served; but most of the arrested twenty -two were sa- 
crificed, with Vergniaud, the most eloquent Frenchman 
of his time. Such, too, was the doom of the once famous 
Bailly, of the high-souled and chivalrous Barnave, of 
the infamous and recreant Duke of Orleans,* of Custine, 
and other distinguished officers, of Malesherbes, the 
great advocate of Louis XVI. But why dwell further 
on the appalling record ? Two deaths, however, stri- 
kingly showed what was most noble in the social life 
which the Reign of Terror endeavored to destroy. The 



* The death of this disgrace to his name is thus described by- 
Mr. Carlyle : — " Phihppe's eyes flashed hell-fire for an instant; but 
the next it was gone, and he sate impassive, Brummellean polite. 
On the scaffold Samson was for drawing off his boots. ' Tush,' 
said Philippe, ' they will come*better off after. Let us have done ; 
depechez-vous.' " 



1793- ^^^ Reign of Terror, 113 

fair and saintly Madame Elizabeth"^ drew tears even 
from Jacobin eyes, as, piety struggling with maiden 
shame, she bowed her head meekly to the fatal axe ; the 
sterner but heroic Madame Roland,t the celebrated wife 
of a minister of that name, went with a smile on her 
lip to the scaffold, exclaiming, " Liberty ! oh what crimes 
are done in thy name ?" 

On October 14, 1793, Marie Antoinette Trial and exe- 
was brought before the fatal tribunal. Her cution of Marie 

° ^ Antoinette, 

appearance filled for an instant whh pity October 14-16, 
the hearts even of her hardened judges, and ^' 

*" "The only emotion she showed," says an eye-witness, "was 
when the executioner approached her to remove her shawl. ' For 
Heaven's sake, sir,' she exclaimed, 'spare me the exposure!"' — 
Six Jours au Temple, -p. 75 ; F, de Conches, vi. p. 556, 

i} &e /cat OvT^CTKOvu' ofiSi^ 
iroWrjv Jrpdvoiac elxev evcrxW'^^ ireaelv, 
KpvTTTOva' & Kpvnreiv o/a/xar' apaivoiv \peu>v. 

f Marion Jeanne Phlipon, Madame Roland, one of the most 
celebrated characters of the Revolution, was born in 1754. She 
was the daughter of an engraver, and her Memoirs show how, 
even in early life, she resented the distinctions between the No- 
blesse and Bourgeoise. In her teens she gave proof of the energy, 
the fervor, and the sentimentalism of her mature years ; but she 
grew up a sceptic, fed on the false literature and philosophy of the 
day. In 1780 she married M. Roland, then an inspector of manu- 
factures at Rouen, and, soon after the beginning of the Revolution, 
repaired with her husband to Paris. There she became Queen of 
the Gironde party, and, when M. Roland was made Minister, his 
chief adviser. Her Memoirs illustrate the enthusiasm, the genius, 
and the unpractical conduct of the Gironde orators, and throw a 
vivid light on most of the events which led to the Reign of Terror. 
She was involved in the proscription of the Gironde, and perished 
on the scaffold in 1793. Her death had something grand and yet 
theatrical about it ; and though her character was noble, it was 
hardly womanly, and was too artificial to charm. 
I 



114 '^he Reign of Terror. CH. vi. 

of the barbarous audience which thronged the hall. 
The hair of the Queen had turned white ; grief had fur- 
rowed prematurely her "noble countenance; she was 
arrayed in a coarse, miserable garb, which hung loose on 
her still stately form ; and in the light which drew out her 
figure from the dim benches and galleries around, she 
looked a wreck of oppressed majesty. How different 
from that vision of youth and grace that had once flitted 
along the terraces of Versailles ; how changed from that 
princely yet winning presence so often greeted by 
applauding multitudes, so long the centre of the homage 
of chivalry ! But the sentiment of compassion passed 
away, for Marie Antoinette was abhorred and feared, 
and the mockery of a trial quickly went on. More than 
one personage of the late Court, willing to barter honor 
for the chance of safety, bore witness against the doomed 
captive ; and a nameless and execrable charge was 
made which received an answer of such pathetic truth 
that even the foul-hearted accuser was silenced. Sen- 
tence was, of course, before long pronounced, and on 
October i6 the victim was led to the guillotine. Forms 
of decency had long ago disappeared ; and Marie Antoi- 
nette was drawn to the place of execution, exposed to 
the insolent gaze of the populace, in a common cart, 
with her arms bound, in a prison dress, like the vilest 
criminal. The calm dignity, however, which had more 
than once abashed her judges a few hours before, did 
not desert the Queen in her last moments ; and it was 
observed that several of the woman fiends who crowded 
round to yell as she passed shrank from her steady and 
serene gaze. On the fatal journey she seemed perfectly 
composed, except when, in the words of an eye-witness, 
"her face gave signs of lively emotion " at the sight of 
what had been once the Tuileries ; and she encountered 



1793- The Rei^n of Terror. 115 

death without display or flinching. Her end was noble, 
and the foul slanders which gathered against her pure 
life were falsehoods ; and we need not inquire what, in 
her case, was the iniquity of the Revolutionary Tribunal. 
But it is not the less true that Marie Antoinette, like 
Louis XVL, had wronged France ; and the wrong she 
had done was the more grievous in that she was a chief 
counsellor- of her imbecile husband, and he was mere 
clay in her proud hands. Still, in judging jj^^ character 
her conduct, the associations of her life and ^"^^ conduct. 
of her situation must b$ fairly weighed ; and History, as 
it marks that stately figure, tossed, feebly resisting, over 
the abyss, may well muse on the tyranny of circum- 
stance, and echo the truth that the Tower of Siloam may 
fall on those not the most guilty. 

For several months few changes were ^a- • • 

° JJivisions 

made in this system of wide-spread tyranny ; among the Ja- 

- , 111-1 • cobin rulers. 

and the men who had seized on power in 
France forgot or sunk their differences under the stress 
of danger. When, however, the Republic emerged from 
its first trials, divisions sprung up among the Jacobin 
chiefs ; and three parties gradually developed themselves, 
representing the conflicting views of their leaders. Dan- 
ton, who, even as early as July, had quitted _, . . 

JJJ' T. Three factions 

the Committee of Public Safety, inclined be- form them- 
fore long to the side of clemency ; and his 
wishes were seconded by a large following, who looked 
up to him as the champion of the revolution. These 
men, turbulent and savage as they were, had neverthe- 
less human sympathies and feelings ; they were not ma- 
niacs of fanatical principles, and they aimed rather at 
enjoyment and influence than at any fixed Republican 
ideal ; and though, like Danton, they were morally cor- 
rupt, they had desired to spare the Gironde victims, and 



1 1 6 7 he Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

began to condemn the excesses of the Reign of Terror. 
The second faction, led by a wretch called Hebert,* was 
composed of the extreme anarchists of the Commune of 
Paris, who had preached atheism, and given the freest 
rein to license ; and the political object of these mis- 
creants was to make the capital supreme in the State, 
and to secure independence to the great cities, while their 
social creed was mere sensual indulgence. The third 
party was led by Robespierre, and by degrees it became 

the strong'est, for the reputation of that sin- 
Growing as- ° -^ . 
cendency of gular being had gained for him a great moral 

Robespierre. , i ,i • i r j 

ascendency ; and the views he proiessed 
with a parade of virtue fell in largely with the popular 
sentiment, always gratified when its worst aspirations are 
flattered in the name of the public good. The hope of 
Robespierre and his immediate followers was to set up a 
Republic in accordance with the wild and mischievous 
notions of Rousseau; and as this end could not be 
approached without carrying out relentlessly the system 
of Terror, they condemned what they called the mode- 
ration of Danton, while they abhorred, as opposed to 
their theories, the godless licentiousness of the Commune 
demagogues. Robespierre, though possibly not cruel by 
nature, was, like all men of his type, pitiless when ruled 
by the ideas on which he had brooded ; and this was the 
character of one or two of his chief subordinates, though 

*" Jacques Rene Hubert, born in 1755, was a footman and a box- 
keeper at a theatre, and had lost both places for dishonesty. When 
the Revolution broke out he became Editor of the Pere Duchesne, 
the most indecent and ribald print probably that has ever seen the 
light, though an imitation of it appeared during the Jacobin 
saturnalia of 1871. This miscreant became one of the chief officers 
of the Commune of Paris, and it was he v^'ho made the unnatural 
and foul chai-ge against the Queen alluded to above. 



1793- The Reign of Te7'ror. 117 

the great mass of the party were mere Jacobins, yielding 
to that impulse which always secures authority for a re- 
solute faith, sustained by real or seeming probity. 
Before 1793 had closed, the ascendency 

. He becomes 

of Robespierre was complete. He was the supreme in the 
especial favorite of the Jacobin Club ; his 
influence in the Convention was supreme, andhe was the 
dictator of the Committee of Public Safety. The dissen- 
sions between the hostile parties soon broke out into 
open discord, and personal antipathies deepened the 
feud. With the system of government which prevailed, 
the possessors of power could easily destroy their rivals ; 
and Robespierre and his satellites turned without scruple 
the tremendous machinery in their grasp against their 
adversaries on either side. Under the pretence of con- 
spiracies, of which proofs were always forthcoming in an 
atmosphere of preternatural suspicion and passion, He- 
bert and the leaders of the Commune were first swept 
away, and with their fall that famous organi- ^ 

1 • 1 1 1 1 • • r 1 Destruction 

zation which had been a main-sprmg of the of Hebert and 
Revolution, and had m^de Paris dominant the Commune, 
in the State, lost a great deal of its immense ?f l^^nton and 

' t> his followers, 

influence. The turn of Danton and his March 24, 
chief friends came next; and though the 
struggle was perilous and long, they too passed before 
the Revolutionary Tribunal, and were immolated by 
means of a special decree obtained from the overawed 
Convention. With them perished what may be described 
as the Moderates of the Reign of Terror, and compassion 
must be felt for the fate of their leader. Danton was a 
man of great natural powers ; courageous, 

, . .,1 • r J -^1, Character of 

resolute, with a genius for command, with Danton. 

an eloquence, rude, but of extraordinary 

force; and if the blood of September be on his head — 



ii8 The Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

and he often played the demagogue for his own ends — 
he had, nevertheless, a patriotic heart ; he is entitled to 
any merit which belongs to the Jacobin scheme of na- 
tional defence ; and it is to his lasting honor that he 
risked and lost his life in the sacred cause of humanity. 
After his death Robespierre and his creatures became 
the absolute masters of France, and they lost no time in 
strengthening their sway.* The authority of the Com- 
mittee of Public Safety was made more com- 
of Robespierre, plete than it had ever been ; and in order to 
keep down the Commune of Paris, the revo- 
lutionary army was disbanded, and the democracy of the 
sections was in a great measure controlled, while the 
chief magistrates were chosen from dependents of 
TT. Robespierre. At the same time clubs and 

riis measures ^ 

to secure his popular socicties, with the one exception of 

power. ,, T , . , , 

the trusty Jacobms were suppressed by a 
summary mandate ; and, as if to show what a Republic 
of virtue was to be, atheism was pronounced "an aristo- 
cratic falsehood," the worship of "the Supreme" was 

declared the natioijal faith, and Christianity 
of the^upreme. ^as proclaimed a base superstition, and its 

ministers criminal dupes or impostors. 
And now, mastered by Robespierre, the Reign of 
Terror at Terror quickened its march, and grew more 

Its height. fearful in its murderous activity. A merci- 

less fanatic swayed the small oligarchy of which the 
powers had been just increased ; and, as if to prove what 
Jacobin "freedom " was, the worst deeds of which the 
old Monarchy had been guilty in the course of ages 
Avere infinitely surpassed in a few months, under a form 
of government in many respects similar. A decree was 
wrung from the oppressed Convention by which the 
Reyqlutionary Tribunal was set free from all checks, 



1793- '^^^^ Reign of Terror. 119 

and " moral conviction " was made sufficient proof of 
crime ; and the energy of that instrument of slaughter 
became suddenly more than ever appalling. Prisoners 
were tried by forties and fifties at a time, and sent to 
their doom with summary glee at a nod or a wink of 
infamous accusers ; and — a fitting emblem of the revolt- 
ing scene — the guillotine appeared in the place of 
judgment. " Suspects " were crammed, literally in 
thousands, in dens, in which vile informers glided about, 
making sure of the means to do them to death ; and 
when other . charges could not be made _ , , 

. . Frightful 

" conspiracies in the prisons " were feigned state of 
to serve the purpose. The dread and agony 
which had taken possession of all within the possible 
reaoh of this frightful tyranny proved often too much 
for nature to endure ; and suicides and madness awfully 
increased, while Paris boi-e the look of a city abandoned 
to a mere multitude of reckless barbarians, what was 
orderly and decent having cowered out of sight. Mean- 
while, the system of spoliation inaugurated by the maxi- 
mum and forced assignats was carried on more strin- 
gently than ever ; and as authority had become fully 
concentrated, devices of escape grew more difficult. 
At the same time the most atrocious vengeance ever 
witnessed perhaps in western Europe was wreaked on 
the hapless revolted cities. Attempts were made to raze 
Lyons and Toulon to the earth ; an-d "floods of death," 
as it was said, "swept away traitors and moderates" in 
these devoted places. Similar horrors were seen at Bor- 
deaux, Arras, and Marseilles ; and for miles 

' Massacres 

below Nantes the Loire rolled to the sea in the 

Provinces. 

hundreds of corpses twisted in ghastly em- 
braces, the victims of what, with hellish mirth, were 
designated as "republican marriages," having been tied 



I20 The Reign of Terror. ch. vi. 

together, and, crowded in barges, deliberately scuttled 
and then set adrift. Simultaneously La Vendee, still in 
part insurgent, was traversed throughout by " infernal 
columns;" and, notwithstanding a manly protest of 
Kleber, who foresaw the inevitable results, these bands 
everywhere marked their advance by murder, pillage, 
and widespread havoc. Commissioners, despatched with 
"full powers" from the capital, urged the populace, 
wherever they could, to these crimes ; and Robespierre 
was the sovereign head and absolute lord of this system 
of blood. If in the chambres ardentes of the Bourbon 
monarchy, in the frequent oppression of the old Parlia- 
ments, in the horrors of the Bastille and other State 
prisons, in the massacres of St. Bartholomew and at La 
Rochelle, in the centralized, cruel and suspicious gov- 
ernments of more than one of the Kings of France, we 
see a faint foreshadowing of this order of things, tyranny 
so rapid and deadly had never before been witnessed ; 
and few probably will think that the execrable character 
of the last and worst phase of the Reign of Terror was 
mitigated by blasphemous festivals to " the Supreme," 
or even by empty and illusory projects to " abolish pov- 
erty" and other social evils. 

Such was the fulfilment of the glowing hopes which 
had animated France four short years before ; such was 
the practical issue of the philosophy which had dazzled 
a generation by its glittering chimeras. The land was a 
land of mourning and carnage ; and the Rights of Man 
terminated in a ruthless despotism sustained by the 
worst dregs of the masses. And what made this ty- 
ranny the more atrocious was that the impulse was 
failing which had first given the Jacobins overpowering 
force ; for, instead of being threatened with destruction, 
the Republic was entering on a career of victory. The 



1794* The Reig7i of Terror. 121 

discomfiture of 1793 had made the Allies more than ever 
divided ; the long-standing jealousies of Austria and 
Prussia were aggravated by intrigues about Poland; and 
when the war was renewed in the spring of ^, _ 

, ^ The Repub- 

1794, the Coalition was ill-prepared to en- He obtains fresh 

1 . J 1 ^ successes in 

counter a daring and resolute enemy, the campaign 
Meanwhile, the gigantic efforts of France <^^^794- 
had been attended with great results, and fully half a 
million of men stood in arms on her frontiers to con- 
front her adversaries. The consequences were such as 
usually follow a struggle between discordant weakness 
and earnest and enthusiastic strength, though other and 
potent causes concurred. The new French levies, 
indeed, were still often defeated, even with a large ad- 
vantage of numbers on their side ; and, without an ad- 
mixture of trained soldiers, they still proved compara- 
tively worthless. On the sea too, the hastily ^ ,. , 

-,_ ,,. , Enghsh naval 

equipped fleets of the Republic met a crush- victory of 
ing reverse ; and the great victory of June "^ ^' 
I gave England the first of a long series of triumphs. 
But numerical force, union, and patriotism told ; and 
they were aided by a direction at least always better 
than that existing in the hostile camps. The Spaniards 
were driven behind the Pyrenees ; Savoy and Nice were 
brilliantly regained ; and the young conqueror of 
Toulon, baffling the Piedmontese by one of those ma- 
nceuvfes which began to show his powers, beheld, Han- 
nibal-like, from the tops of the Alps, the plains soon to 
be the scenes of his most splendid exploits. Meantime, 
after a protracted struggle, the Duke of York ^pj^g ^^j^g 
was beaten on the Belgian frontier ; and while defeated on all 

°- other points of 

Pichegru and Moreau advanced into Flan- the theatre, 
ders, Carnot repeated the operation of the Fiemus, June 
preceding year, and, profiting by the remiss- ^^' ^7^^^" 



122 The Reign of Terror. CH. vi. 

ness of the enemy in the Vosges, moved a considerable 
force from the Meuse to the Sambre, which gave the 
French victory on the plains of Fleurus, and made them 
masters, in a few days, of Brussels. 

By this time the horrible excesses of the 
againsfthe Rcign of Terror had begun to provoke the 
Reign of reaction certain at last to set in ; and the 

X error. 

triumphs of the Republic concurred in 
making the system of Jacobinism, at its worst, disliked. 
The conscience even of the populace of the towns re- 
volted at the scenes of blood and despair which had 
made France miserable in the midst of her glories ; and 
a growing sentiment quickly spread that the discomfi- 
ture of the enemy on the frontier ought to bring to an 
end a state of things which had brought such frightful 
confusion and havoc. The judges of the Revolutionary 
Tribunal sickened at their cruel and execrable work ; 
shouting crowds no longer followed the guillotine ; and 
cries of pity often rose for the victims even in the least 
wealthy parts of the capital. In this condition of opinion 
the ultimate fall of the supremacy of Robespierre was 
assured ; but it was accelerated by a movement in the 
governing powers which had bowed under his sway for a 
time. In a fit, apparently of moody discontent, he ab- 
sented himself for several weeks from the ruling Com- 
mittee of Public Safety ; and whether he did or did not 
contemplate the decimation of the down-trodden Con- 
vention, the execution of most of his nearest associates, 
and an absolute dictatorship for himself, most of his 
colleagues began to combine against him. When here- 
, , appeared in the Convention, the dark 

Fall of Robes- /^ , , , . ,. 

pierre,juiy27, threats he Uttered seemed to mdicate only 
^''^'^" more measures of blood ; and, under the 

influence of one or two courageous leaders, even the 



1794- The Reign of Terror. 123 

prostrate Assembly broke out in murmurs. Next day, 
after a scene of violent excitement, his arrest and that 
of St. Just and Couthon was decreed ; and the Revolu- 
tionary Mountain at last rose with the Plain and Right 
against the dreaded tyrant. Robespierre, however, had 
in the interval invoked the aid of the Jacobin Club and 
of his satellites in the Commune of Paris ; and he was 
rescued, with the two other prisoners, while a formida- 
ble insurrection was set on foot to overawe the national 
representation. The sections were, however, divided; 
a small part only ob-eyed the Commune; and the ma- 
jority sided with the Convention, especially after a 
decree had been made declaring " the triumvirs " trai- 
tors to the State. Robespierre and his associates were 
quickly haled before the tribunal which, so ^ . , 

Execution of 

to speak, had become the type of their fear- Robespierre, 
ful government ; and most of the leaders thon,"and 
of the Commune, now again struck down, ^^^l^' ^^^ 
perished with the abhorred and guilty 
tyrant. This apostle of blood and his followers were the 
last of the band, with a few exceptions, which was most 
stained in the Revolution with crime, and the dagger of 
Charlotte Corday* had some months before relieved 
France of the presence of Marat. 

Such was the Revolution of July 1794, or 
of Thermidor, by the new French calendar. Reflections 

•^ on this 

It will always be a subject of reproach to event. 
Frenchmen that they bowed their necks to 

* Charlotte Corday, born in 1768, was a young lady of a good 
family in Normandy, and was a grand-daughter of Corneille. Her 
imagination, deeply impressed by the atrocities of the Reign of 
Terror, fired her to assassinate Marat, and she stabbed him in a 
bath in July 1793. Her execution is touchingly described by Mr. 
Carlyle, 



124 Tlie Reign of Terror. ch. vi, 

the yoke of Robespierre ; and in this acquiescence we, no 
doubt, see the national tendency to yield to despotism. 
It must be recollected, however, that the success of the 
Jacobins was largely due, in the first instance, to its 
association with the cause of the independence of 
France, and to the hold they had on patriotic minds, 
and that it is impossible at a terrible crisis to ch-eck even 
the worst tyranny at once ; and when the danger of 
foreign war had ceased, the Reign of Terror soon came 
to a close. As for the horrors of that time, they show 
how fierce were the hatreds of class which had long 
existed, and how brutalized a part of the people was ; 
but though France accepted the Jacobin rule, and even 
welcomed it for some reasons, these atrocities ought, in 
justice, to be charged against a minority of Frenchmen 
only — the worst populace of a few great cities, and a 
^, ^ band of reckless and audacious dema- 

Ihe T. error- 

ists were not gogues. The Terrorists have been described 

able men. ^ ^ , , 

as men ot great powers, and the measures 
they adopted for the defence of France have been 
held up as a proof of ability ; but this misconception of 
the worshippers of success ought to be contradicted by 
impartial history. The Jacobin leaders, certainly, showed 
energy ; bujt their system led to a civil war which was 
destructive, anci might have been fatal ; their policy of 
force, especially in its social aspects, was cruel, ruinous, 
and unwise alike ; and whatever seems to have b^en 
achieved by them was really achieved by French genius 
and valor. Besides, any credit to be given to them 
ought to be confined to Danton alone — the Marats, the 
Robespierres, and their crew, were simply incapable as 
political chiefs ; and not one of the distinguished soldiers 
who appeared at this crisis was a Terrorist. The efforts 
of France to resist her foes were heroic, and have hardly, 



1794* , The Reign of Terror. 125 

perhaps, been ever surpassed, but should 
not blind us by false illusions. The Allies standing the 
might, without the least difficulty, have en- French" the^ 
tered Paris in the summer of 1793 ; and, ^^^^ ^^^^^ 
memorable as its struggles were, the Revo- down the 
lution triumphed only through the divisions 
and negligence of its antagonists. Nor does the eventful 
contest of this period detract from the truth that armies 
of recruits are weak and dangerous instruments of war, 
and that in the military, as in other arts, experience and 
training are of the greatest value. The young French 
levies were for months useless unless supported by sea- 
soned troops. Napoleon, indeed, has said that what 
was really done was done by the Army of the old Mo- 
narchy ; and the forces of the Coalition were, in every 
respect, of better quality than their opponents. But mere 
organization is not everything in war ; and unanimity, 
numbers, patriotic devotion, and above all, superior 
strategic skill — mistaken as Carnot was more than once 
-—prevailed as they have prevailed before. These con- 
siderations ought not to lessen the admiration which is 
justly due to the energy and constancy of the French 
people ; they simply explain, on rational grounds, the 
great success of the imperilled Republic, which national 
enthusiasm has not unnaturally invested with a charac- 
ter of marvel. 



126 Thermidor. French Conquests. CH. vii. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THERMIDOR. FRENCH CONQUESTS. 

The authors of the Revolution of Thermi- 

Reaction of , , , • -i i ■■ 

Thermidor. dor had no Conception that what they were 
about to do -would bring the Reign of Ter- 
ror to a close. Some had been almost as bad as their 
victims ; others were Jacobins of a decided type ; and 
their principal object was to escape death, though the ^ 
majority of the Convention felt nobler motives. But 
the fate of Robespierre was a signal for France to throw 
off a terrible incubus ; and a reaction against the Reign 
of Terror began to set in with that passionate quickness 
which is a distinctive feature of the national character. 
The prisons Within a few days the astonished multitudes 
opened. of " suspects " Were let out from their pri- 

sons ; and even the populace of Paris joined in the 
ecstacy of the hour of deliverance. Before long the 
atrocities in the South and other places caused general 
indignation, and several of the monsters who had en- 
couraged these crimes met the fate which they righteously 
Punishment deservcd. After a time, too, the Revolution- 
theTerSr-^ ary Tribunal, with its detestable proce- 
ists. dure, disappeared ; and some of the judges 

justly perished by the violent means which 
the Revoiutio- they had recklessly abused. Meanwhile the 
nary n una , Convention, at last set free, endeavored 
to confirm its restored supremacy, to check tyranny and 
anarchy alike, and to inaugurate a policy of concilia- 
tion. The powers of the Committee of Public -Safety 



1794- Thennidori French Conquests. 127 

were reduced, and its members changed by a speedy 
rotation, though this obviously weakened the Executive. 
The decrees which placed all France " in requisition " 
to the State were either modified or re- , , , 

and of the 

pealed ; and the maximum was abandoned, maximum, 
with the sanguinary laws which sought to the%alue"o1"° 
force the value of assignats, although the con^nued^^^' 
results were not unforeseen. At the same 
time energetic efforts were made to curb and guard 
against mob license ; the National Guards were again 
remodelled and recomposed from the middle classes ; 
the band of pikemen were broken up ; the ^, 

^ . -^ I he popu'ace 

authority of the Commune of Paris, already of Paris kept 
shattered, was still further lessened by di- 
viding its council and limiting its powers; the more 
violent sections were jealously watched ; and, last and 
most important of all, the revolutionary committees were 
everywhere suppressed, and the Jacobin ^, , , 

The Jacobin 

Club and its kindred societies, the centre Club sup- 
and feeders of agitation, were shut up. The 
remains, too, of the proscribed Gironde, with the seventy- 
three imperilled deputies, were invited to return to their 
seats ; compensation was voted, to a certain extent, for 
some of the worst outrages of the Reign of Terror ; and 
at last Billaud Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, and Barere, 
the three surviving chiefs of the terrible committee, 
were prosecuted and sent beyond the seas, though they 
had taken part with the men of Thermidor. Finally, 
religion was solemnly declared free, and the churches 
were given to their congregations, though the sentiment 
of the Convention remained hostile for the most part to 
priests of all kinds. 

In this way the State tried to atone in some measure 
for the horrors of the past, and the machinery of Jaco- 



128 Thennidor. Fre^ich Conquests. ch. vii. 

bin disorder and cruelty was, to a considerable extent, 
destroyed. The reaction, however, in the ruling powers 
, , ^ of France, and the enactments sanctioned 

Violence of 

the Reaction, by the Convention, expressed but feebly 
the intense hostility which broke out generally against 
the whole scheme of Terror. Jacobin functionaries 
were expelled from their places everywhere ; the Na- 
tional Guards of Paris, filled with the bourgeoisie, 
showed no mercy to the " tools of Robespierre ;" and the 
young men of the Middle classes formed companies to 
keep down the mob, and hunted out, as if they had 
been unsexed, the female furies of the galleries and the 
guillotine. The example of the capital was followed 
elsewhere, especially in the large trading cities, which 
had been treated with such ruthless barbarism ; and the 
recoil of opinion was so quick and violent that the 
royalists, who, a few months before, lived in daily dread 
of a summons to the scaffold, showed themselves, and 
sometimes oppressed their oppressors. The " Com- 
mittee of Mercy " into which, it was said, " France had 
suddenly resolved herself," Was, in a word, not merciful 
to the late dominant party ; and, in the rapid oscillation 
of the public sentiment, not only was clemency lavishly 
displayed, but the tyrants of the other day received their 
own measure, and were widely subjected to no little 
tyranny. At the same time, in Paris and elsewhere, a 
singular revolution in manners took place. 

Revolution in . . , . , 

manners. not unknown m Other national crises, but 

strangely rapid and very characteristic. In the extra- 
ordinary confusion of the last two or three years pro- 
perty had changed hands to an immense extent ; and a 
new and large moneyed class had sprung up, formed by 
the sale of the lands of hnigres, by army and other gov- 
ernment contracts, and, above all, by jobbing in 



1794* Thermidor. French Conquests. 129 

assignats, and speculating in their continual fall, which 
no policy of terror could long prevent. This class, per- 
secuted by the Jacobin leaders, now emerged brilliantly 
to the surface ; and the Court and the Nobles hav- 
ing disappeared, it formed the high social life of the 
capital, and stamped its character on the fashion of the 
hour. The uncouth savagery which had been supreme 
was replaced by a costly display of wealth ; and the 
ruling orders banished the memory of the past in a 
giddy round of excitement and pleasure. The mansions 
of the Soubises and the Noailles were crowded with a 
new kind of noblesse, and echoed to the sound of bals 
h la vlctime, confined to the relations of recent sufferers. 
What was significantly called the jeunesse ^^ , 

^ •' •' ^ Ihe jeunesse 

dorie of the changed error appeared in the Dor6e. 
salons of the Voltaires, the Condorcets, the Du Deffands ; 
and the wives and daughters of the men of the time, in 
Ionic garb, and with snooded tresses, aped the graces, 
the luxuries, and the dissoluteness of Versailles. The 
raggedness and austerity of 1793 was, in short, cried 
down ; and French nature, volatile and gay, indemni- 
fied itself for what it had endured by rushing wildly into 
joyous amusement. The change was not surprising, 
though it leaves behind a painful impression of national 
levity ; yet we shall hardly compare it, as it has been 
compared, to the reawakening of nature in spring, to 
the letting loose of the ice-bound waters. 
It was impossible but that this vehement „ 

^ Renewed 

reaction should lead before long to renewed troubles, 
troubles. The party of Terror, lately all powerful, had 
still a considerable hold on the masses, though its chief 
strength had departed from it ; and the harshness with 
which it was everywhere coerced, and the triumph of 
the Moderates, now again in the ascendant, filled it with 
K 



130 Thermidor. French Conquests. ch. vii. 

resentment and indignation. Had France, " patriot " 
orators exclaimed, shaken off an arrogant though ab- 
horred despotism to fall into the hands of money- 
changers and scribes ? Had Europe been driven from 
her frontiers, and thousands of her bravest children 
perished, to substitute for an aristocracy of birth and 
titles a new aristocracy of the bank and the counter ? 
Was the end of the Revolution to be the complete de- 
struction of its most trusty instruments ? Were the 
measures by which it had saved the Nation, checked 
dangerous factions, and maintained the poor, to be 
flouted in the interest of the selfish and rich ? Was a 
dictatorship, stern, perhaps, but glorious, to be converted 
into a mode of government in which a class maltreated 
and scorned the people ? The extraordinary condition 
of France gave plausibility and force to these arguments, 
and supplied discontent with its keenest stimulants. The 
requisitions and spoliations of the Reign of Terror had 
inevitably lessened and checked production ; and the 
abolition of the maximum and of the ferocious laws 
which forced up the value of assignats had concurred 
to raise the price of commodities, though these expe- 
dients had, of course, been less efficacious than their 
authors supposed. The result was that great scarcity 
prevailed, and that a sudden and extreme 

Scarcity and \ 

distress. increase in the rost of the necessaries of 

life took place ; and the pressure in Paris became so 
alarming that the government was obliged to put the 
poor on rations, and to have recourse to all kinds of ex- 
pedients to secure for them a scanty subsistence. This 
distress, general and widespreading, caused a demand 
for the Jacobin measures to revive ; and it is probable, 
indeed, that the financial system of the Terrorists, ex- 
ecrable as it was, was abrogated with incautious celerity. 



1795- 7hermidor. I^rench Conquests. 131 

However this may have been, the lower 
classes in the capital and other parts of party tries to 
France lent themselves before long to the ^^^'^' 
appeals of agitators to rise and regain their lost power ; 
and the irritation they felt was, no doubt, exasperated by 
the selfish luxury of the new-made rich, by revolutionary 
hopes not yet extinguished, by ignorance, jealousy, and 
blind passion. 

Such, briefly, was the internal state of France within 
a few months after the Revolution of Thermidor. The 
forces of anarchy before long broke out in the chief 
centre of their power, though they made themselves felt 
in other places, especially where they had 
been most repressed. On April i, 1795, ofSh''^^^^^ 
1 2th Germinal by the new style, the mob Germinal 
of Paris burst into the hall of the Conven- 
tion, shouting for "Bread and the- Constitution of 1793," 
which had become the rallying cry of the " patriots ; " 
but it was driven out without much difficulty ; and the 
dispersion of it was chiefly remarkable in that Pichegru, 
then for the moment on the spot, was called in to put 
down the rioters — an ominous but significant symptom. 
Some weeks afterwards, on May 20, or ist Prairial, a 
more determined, and better organized , ^ 

and of ist 

demonstration took place ; the populace, Prairial, 
aided by one or two of the sections, invaded ^■^' ^^^^' 
the seat of the Legislature again, and savagely massa- 
cred one of the deputies, amidst a scene worthy of the 
worst days of 1793 ; and a few Mountain deputies, who, 
it is supposed, were privy to the rising to some extent, 
went through the form of voting decrees which conceded 
all the anarchists' demands. This outbreak, however, 
threatening as it became, was no longer sustained by 
the potent means ready in the hands of a Danton or a 



132 7hermidor. French Conquests. CH. vii. 

Robespierre, and was suppressed in a short time ; and 
the National Guards and anti-Jacobin sections were 
again aided by a force of soldiery, now on the side of 
authority and the State, not as had been witnessed a 
few years before. The extinction of this insurrectionary 
effort enabled the leaders of the Convention to strike 
down the remaining Jacobin chiefs, and to take severe 
measures against future disorders. The deputies of the 
Mountain who had voted for the decrees were executed, 
or put an end to themselves ; and the 

put down ,. - , ^ . -1 J J 

and sup- relics of the Terrorists were proscribed ana 

prcsse . banished. At the same time the rebellious 

sections were disarmed ; the National Guard was carefully 
thinned of men suspected of the Jacobin taint, and, for 
the first time, was, to some extent, placed under regular 
military control ; and provision was made for the imme- 
diate removal of the Convention to Chalons in the event 
of danger, and for summoning to its aid the nearest 
army. Meanwhile, stern and sanguinary laws were 
passed against popular and anarchic meetings; the 
"patriots" complained that they suffered more than 
they had ever inflicted in the Reign of Terror ; and, in 
the words of a sober historian, " the party of humanity 
and moderation did not itself abstain from the profuse 
shedding of blood." 

By these means the once terrible power 

The power of "^ 1 1 1 i i i 

jkcobinism fi- of Jacobmism was altogether broken, though 
naliy broken. .^^ elements retained indestructible Hfe. The 
government, however, had no sooner put down one party 
than it found it necessary to restrain another, for the re- 
action of Thermidor was becoming dangerous; and 
though the Moderates in the Convention prevailed, they 
had no sympathy with the avowed royalists, or even with 
the reformers of 1789, foremost in the fierce anti-Jacobin 



1795- Thermidor. French Cotiquesis. 133 

crusade. Coercive measures were also em- 
Measures 01 

ployed against these enemies of the Repub- the Govern- 

T 1 ,1 ,1 T ment against 

lie ; and thus the rulmg powers were on the Royalists, 
either side beset by exasperated and reckless 
factions, and with difficulty kept a middle course between 
them. The government accordingly became ^ , 

Weakness of 

weakened ; its authority, diffused and no the State, 
longer concentrated, through the change the ruie^ of^the 
made in the Supreme Committee, grew va- ^""'^^^• 
cillating, afhd, in a great degree, uncertain; and as it 
rejected the expedients of the Reign of Terror, it was 
gradually more and more compelled to look to military 
force for support — the end to which things were beginning 
to tend. Meanwhile, on all points in the theatre of war, 
the success of the French arms had multi- 
plied, and the hosts of the Republic were cesser^of The 
borne forwards on a rapid and overwhelm- French agamst 
ing tide of victory. The fortresses captured 
in 1793 were quickly evacuated by the Allies; and, after 
the occupation of Brussels, the conquerors spread over 
Belgium in triumph, and annexed its fertile provinces to 
France. Before long Pichegru advanced northwards, 
while Jourdan turned towards the Lower Rhine; and 
though this dislocation of the French armies — a charac- 
teristic error of Carnot's strategy, which consisted in am- 
bitious movements on the wings of the adversary with a 
too feeble centre, and was only better than the impotent 
system of a general advance on an immense divided 
front — gave the Allied commanders a great opportunity, 
they separated from each other in eccentric retreat, full 
of mutual discontent and suspicion. By the close of 1794 
Pichegru had overrun a large part of Holland, while 
Jourdan had gained two important victories on the prin- 
cipal affluents of the Lower Meuse ; and within a few 



134 Thej'viidor. French Conquests. ch. vil. 

, months the United Provinces had been 

Conquest of it-, --r-. iti 

Belgium and transformed mto the Batavian Repubhc, the 
temb^", 179^4^' House of Orange had been deposed, and 
januarV, i795. the whole Low Countries, from the Scheldt 
to the Ems, had become merely a French dependency. 
The war, too, had been carried far into Spain ; and events, 
which for a time had worn a menacing aspect in La 
Vendee, turned in favor of the Republic once more. In 
this unhappy region the atrocious cruelties of the Terror- 
ists had caused the insurrection to revive, and to extend 
over a large part of Brittany ; and the prospects of the 
rising appeared so bright that an English expedition was 
despatched, with a band of Emigres, to aid the royalists. 
A descent, however, attempted from Quiberon Bay, 
„ ., ^^ proved a miserable and inglorious failure; 

Failure of Eng- ^ . ° 

lish descent and Hoche, who, like all real Generals, had 
Bay , July i7-2o, Hiany of the highest gifts of a statesman, 
^795- reduced the whole West before long to sub- 

mission by a policy of conciliation and sagacious firm- 
ness, winning the purest fame of the military chiefs of 
the time. 

These extraordinary successes of the French dissolved 
_, _ , . the already yielding Coalition. Prussia, the 

The Coalition ^ -,./,, 7 • n , i i 

dissolved. Power which had chiefly provoked the con- 
Spafn^ make test, was the first to abandon the allied cause, 
^une%^?"^* and made peace in the spring of 1795. 
Spain followed her example within a few 
months ; and England, Austria, and Piedmont, with 
some States of the German Empire, already wearied of 
a calamitous and unprofitable struggle, alone remained 
to continue the war. The Republic had thus in two 
campaigns broken up an alliance which seemed more 
powerful than that which had humbled Louis XIV. ; and 
it had extended its conquests beyond the limits of the 



1795- Thermidor. French Conquests. 135 

most ambitious hopes of the Bourbon Monarchy. The 
result was in the highest degree briUiant ; _ 

^ , ., , -r^ Causes of this 

yet its real causes may be easily noted. Be- astonishing 
fore the Campaign of 1794 had closed, the Republic. 
French armies, already immensely superior 
in numbers to their antagonists, had become gradually 
inured to war, and the young levies, after enormous loss- 
es, had hardened into truly formidable soldiers. The 
enterprise of the Republican troops, stirred by the im- 
pulse which first gave them strength, by the national 
passion for military glory, and by reiterated and splen- 
did success, beca.me astonishingly great and daring, and 
they ultimately gained that moral ascendency over their 
ill-led and beaten opponents which is one of the chief 
conditions of success. The conduct, too, of the Allied 
Commanders was even more pitiable than before ; and 
indignation was justly felt in England against the in- 
competent Duke of York, and in Austria against the 
dull Prince of Cobourg, who had contrived in two years 
to fail in everything. The circumstance, however, has 
yet to be mentioned which so quickly enlarged the con- 
quests of France, and we shall see it again in operation. 
The Republican soldiers were not, indeed, always kind- 
ly masters in the Low Countries or elsewhere ; they were 
obliged to live on the tracts they occupied, being almost 
destitute of supplies from home; and their rapid advance 
was usually marked by excesses of license and by or- 
ganised plunder. But in these, and in other parts of 
the Continent, the abuses of Feudalism and of the eigh- 
teenth century had undermined the whole frame of so- 
ciety ; and the old order of things collapsed when it 
came in contact with revolutionary passions. Wherever 
the arms of France made their way, the privileges of 
the Church and the Nobles disappeared ; the Reign of 



136 Thermidor. French Conquests. ch. vii. 

Liberty and Equality was proclaimed, and much that 
was unjust was swept away ; and the result was that the 
people welcomed the foreign invader in many places, 
though their liberation cost a heavy price, and that the 
moral influence of the new French ideas was even more 
decisive than what were called the fourteen armies of 
the French Republic. 

While France, however, was triumphant 
weaknesTof abroad, her government* at home remained 
the Republic feeble, and her social condition was in many 

at home. ■" 

respects lamentable. Her armies, indeed, 
with the exception of that which held the mountainous 
line of the Alps from Dauphiny and Provejice to the 
Genoese seaboard, were, on the whole, in a prosperous 
state, especially in the rich Low Countries ; and the at- 
traction to them became so great that towards the close 
of 1795 she had probably four hundred thousand men in 
the field. The peasantry, too, were for the most part 
thriving, notwithstanding the late maximum and requi- 
sitions, for the emancipation of the soil in 1789 had con- 
tinued to make agriculture improve, and rents and taxes 
had sunk to almost nothing, under a currency ever 
diminishing in value. Trade, too, had revived to some 
extent, the Reign of Terror having ceased to destroy it ; 

* M. Thiers' Histoire de la Revolution Francaise seems to me, 
on the whole, the best guide for the period between the Revolution 
of Thermidor and the i8th Brumaire. His account of the internal 
and financial state of France during these years of disenchantment 
and exhaustion is lucid and able. The papers by Napoleon, in 
his Commentaries, on Vendemiaire and La Politique du Direc- 
toire, should also be read, but they are not just to the Government. 
The correspondence of the late Mr. Wickham throws much light 
on the relations between Foreign Powers and the discontented fac- 
tions in France. 



1795* TJiermidor. Frefich Conquests. 137 

and the assignats, from their enormous fall, becoming 
almost useless as instruments of exchange, a return to a 
natural system had begun, and the precious metals 
slowly reappeared. But, as if to show the irony of fate, 
the populace of the great cities, which had figured so 
largely in the Revolution, remained gene- 
rally in extreme want; and though, as we disSeS^of 
have seen, a moneyed class had sprung up, the great 
this had been at the cost of other classes ; 
and the government, which still went on receiving the 
imposts of the state in worthless paper, was on the verge 
of financial ruin. Harassed, too, as it was by contend- 
ing parties, and itself a mere revolutionary growth, its 
weakness could only rapidly increase; and, with the 
Convention, it was completely eclipsed by the splendor 
of the military power, which had begun to fascinate the 
masses. A strong Republican spirit, indeed, was still 
prevalent in the legislature ; but though freedom and 
the Rights of Man were potent spells of victory abroad, 
they were gradually losing their magic in France. The 
period of exhaustion and of disenchantment 

I • V r 11 1 .• . „ Exhaustion 

which lollows revolutions was soon to open, of the revo- 
and the political aspirations of many turned 5"^'^°"^"^ 
chiefly to repose and a strong government. 
What that government would probably be in the col- 
lapse of settled authority and rule, Burke in England 
had already distinctly foreseen. 

As the summer of 1795 progressed, the re- . 
actionary parties increased in strength. The repose and a 
Republic, though victorious abroad, became ment^. Reac- 
associated in the minds of thousands with ^"nSSy'^^ 
Jacobinism and the horrors of the past; and 
a sentiment began to be widely diffused in favor 01 
Monarchy and of the system which had perished only 



138 Tliermidor. Fi'ench Conquests. ch. vii. 

in a moment of passion. This feeling allied itself with 
the desire for quiet which largely prevailed ; and though 
the imigris were generally hated, and the exiled Bour- 
bons had not many supporters, royalist agents made 
their presence felt, and the air grew thick with rumors 
of royalist plots. The government and the Convention, 
too, became more than ever disliked ; they were ac- 
cused of prolonging a usurped power; and as they 
had lost their hold on the Jacobin "patriots," they were 
decried in the centres of public opinion, though still up- 
held by the great mass of the Nation. In this state of 
things the ruling powers resolved not unwisely to appeal 
to the people ; and the appeal was prefaced by a Con- 
stitution which expressed the latest effort of their legis- 
lative wisdom. This scheme, called the Constitution 
of the year III. — ^the Hegira of " liberty " ran from 1792 — 

plainly showed what were the ideas domi- 
uiTyear^in ^lant among the chief French politicians of 

the hour and in the majority of the Con- 
vention. The organic changes of 1789 were ratified by 
a solemn oath; the Jacobin Constitution of 1793 was 
pronounced impossible and thrust aside ; and the govern- 
ment was declared a Republic, though not without one 
or two protests. It was sought, however, to provide 
against the troubles and disasters of the past by a 
variety of ingenious expedients ; and the proposed form 
of government was, in many respects, decidedly hostile 
to democratic influences. The Legislature, composed 
of seven hundred and fifty deputies, was to be elected 
by a not popular vote, although the election was to 
be annual ; and it was divided into two distinct parts, 
a Council of Ancients, and one of Five-Hundred, ex- 
perience having already taught the lesson of the perils 
attending a single Chamber, An Executive was formed 



179^' Thermidor. French Conquests. 139 

of Five Directors chosen by the Councils, and with 
dependent ministers ; and precautions were taken 
against a recurrence of the tyranny of 1793 by a provi- 
sion that one Director should retire each year. At the 
same time, the extravagant local powers which had been 
created in 1789, and had been so terribly abused, were 
still further limited ; and recent enactments against mob 
violence were declared essential to the security of the 
State. In addition, and most important of all, two- 
thirds of the existing Convention was to be re-elected, 
and a third part only of the succeeding assemblies was 
to be at present formed of new members, the mischief 
of the self-denying ordinance of 1791 being fully under- 
stood, and great apprehension being felt of the royalist 
and anti-republican parties. 

This Constitution, which, in the abstract, ^, ^ 

' . ' • . The Constitu- 

was not without considerable merit, and tion generally 
rriight have struck root in different times, 
was generally well received in France, though it was 
observed that assent was for the most part passive, and 
the enthusiasm of past years had died away. The con- 
ditions, however, which maintained the ex- ^ 

Opposition to 

isting Legislature in the main unchanged, the re-election 

• 1,11 1 . T 1 of two-thirds 

were violently denounced m several places ; of the Conven- 
and this was eagerly seized as a grievance *'°"- 
by the adversaries of the existing order of things. The 
leaders of the reactionary parties declaimed again the 
tyrannous Convention ; and they were supported by an 
undefined following of those whom vanity, ambition, 
and want, led to hope for advantage in new disorders. 
These sentiments were especially strong in Paris, ever 
agitated and eager for change ; and a formidable oppo» 
sition to the Constitution, supported largely by the 
middle classes, gathered in the fickle and excitable capi' 



140 Thet'midor. Freiich Conquests. ch. vii. 

tal. An insurrection was planned in the sections in 
which the malcontents were most powerful ; and on 
October 4 the National Guards of one of the principal 
sections rose, the expedients of anarchy being thus em- 
ployed in the turbulence of revolutionary time, by the 
class which had lately most suffered from them. The in- 
capacity of the military commandant in Paris led quickly 
to a more general rising ; and on the morning of the 
4th dense columns rolled through streets and squares 
towards the Tuileries palace, vociferating against " Con- 
„. . , , ventional traitors." The insurrection ap- 

Rising of the , ^ 

reactionary peared as terrible as that of August 10 ; but 

sections of ^ . , ... 

Paris, 13th a man of action was on the spot to quell it, 
lyctT^lTqs' ^^^ ^^ conditions of the struggle were 
put down by wholly different. The frightened Conven- 

Bonaparte. • , , , ... _ 

tion had some hours previously given Bona- 
parte the command of all the troops in the city ; and 
that officer awaited the attack with composure, though 
he had only then a few thousand men. The tumultuary 
assailants were cut down by vollies of grape shot as 
they appeared ; their masses, after a few discharges, 
broke, and in a very short time hardly a trace remained 
of what had seemed a most alarming outbreak. The 
result was, perhaps, in some degree due to the energy 
and skill of Bonaparte ; but probably the greater part 
of the force of the sections had no real heart in the 
cause ; and as revolutionary passions were dying out, 
and regular soldiers were now on the scene, the revolt 
was put down with comparative ease. 

. The quick suppression of this outbreak, 

oftheConven- known as that of the 13th Vendemiaire, 

tion restored. , i . ,i- i i.* 

was a severe blow to the revolutionary par- 
ties, and, for the moment, put them to silence. The 
authority of the Convention and of the Republican 



1796. Thermidor, French Conquests. 141 

chiefs, who guided the majority, increased in proportion ; 
and severe measures were adopted against the still for- 
midable National Guard of the capital. This citizen 
force was in part disbanded, and placed entirely in the 
hands of the General in command of the regular troops 
in Paris ; and it thus finally lost the character of a power 
self-elected and independent of the State. The chief 
result of Vendemiaire, however, was, of ^.^ 

Ihe militarj' 

course, to strengthen the military power ; power becomes 
and Bonaparte learned on that day a lesson 
he was not likely to forget. On October 26 the Con- 
vention declared its mission ended, and closed its 
sittings; and immediately afterwards the new powers 
which were to govern France were installed in their 
functions. 

The last part of the rule of the Convention is not less 
instructive than that which preceded, though „ ^ . 

. . f » & Reflections 

of less tragic and striking interest. In less on the 
than a year and a half after the Revolution the Revoiu- 
of Thermidor, the national sentiment xhermSor 
seemed transformed ; the forces of Jaco- 
binism had been put down ; and the Republic was 
threatened by a combination of royalists and anti-repub- 
lican parties, increasing in strength though not domi- 
nant. In this we certainly see clear proof of the mo- 
bility of the French character ; yet, if we recollect that 
the excesses of the Reign of Terror were justly abhorred, 
that the ascendency of Jacobinism was largely due to 
passions engendered by national peril, and ceased when 
the crisis passed away, and that old habits, traditions, 
and beliefs retain always extraordinary power, the 
change becomes intelligible to thoughtful minds. Con- 
currently we observe how the hopes and passions of the 
Revolution begin to fade and wane in the disappoint- 



142 The Dh'ectory. Bonaparte, ch. viii. 

ment of its most eager supporters ; how the State 
weakens amidst the strife of factions, not morally 
strong, but selfish and fierce ; how a feeling of lassitude 
creeps over human nature lately so violently stirred, 
and a desire grows up for rest and order ; and how, 
above all, the power of the sword, sustained by brilliant 
success abroad, and throwing its weight into the balance 
at home, casts its shadow on the coming time. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DIRECTORY. BONAPARTE. 

During the period we are next to survey, 
this period. the French Revolution, losing its strength 

at home, and having triumphed over its 
foreign enemies, turns definitively into the path of con- 
quest abroad ; until, suddenly arrested by unexpected 
reverses, it collapses under the military rule to which it 
had been for some time tending. In the internal condi- 
tion of France in these years we see the causes increasing 
in force which had been lessening revolutionary passions, 
and introducing the arbitrament of the sword. Under a 
system of government, not, indeed, as worthless as it has 
been described by the flatterers of success, but composed 
of men not of marked eminence, divided against itself, 
and sinking in repute, the strife of the dregs of factions 
becomes more vexatious, and the desire for tranquillity 
grows more general ; and at last, after a long exhibition 
of weakness, violence, and uncertain counsels, the State 
falls into the hands of a great soldier, and national peril 



1795- Ihe Directo7y, Bonaparte. 143 

hastens the issue. This consummation — the usual end 
of epochs of wild and destructive change — is furthered 
by the advance of prosperity, and by the eagerness of 
the new interests formed by the Revolution to consolidate 
themselves ; and it is precipitated by the national ten- 
dency to bow to power and military fame, and, above all, 
by the splendid achievements and gifts of the extraordi- 
nary man to whom France not unnaturally looked as her 
champion. But though the decline of the failing Repub- 
lic is of the deepest interest to the political thinker, His- 
tory, at this juncture, turns her chief attention to the 
march of the Revolution abroad, and to its contest with 
the old Powers of Europe. There we see how the ideas 
of 1789, thongh not so decisively perhaps as before, con- 
curred to speed the progress of the arms of France ; and 
how their influence was not unfelt even in the hour of 
defeat and disaster. There, too, we see how war assumes 
more ample and magnificent proportions, under the im- 
pulse of a new and eventful time, and the inspiration of 
commanding genius ; and we mark, as Bonaparte appears 
on the scene, how he alike extends the conquests of 
France and modifies her Revolutionary foreign policy. 
For some time after Vendemiaire, the ^ , , 

State of the 

mternal state of the Republic presented but Republic after 
few incidents of striking interest. The sup- 
pression of the revolt of the sections had, we have seen, 
quieted the reactionary parties ; and though their foes, 
in consequence, grew more daring, the efforts of these 
were of little avail, and a Jacobin conspiracy, headed by 
an enthusiast called Baboeuf, came to nothing. Another 
attempt was also made to descend on the coasts of La 
Vendee ; but the policy of Hoche had borne its fruits, 
and the West remained in submissive repose, though 
elements of trouble lurked beneath the surface. The 



144 '^^^^ Diredoiy. Bonaparte. ch. viii. 

majority too, of the former Convention predominated in 
the new Legislature, though a certain number of the 
freshly elected deputies were little inclined to republican 
views ; and, for the present, the prevailing sentiment was 
to maintain the ^settlement of 1795. The Directory, who 
composed the government, though less moderate than 
many in the Councils, and indeed wholly formed of men 
who had voted for the death of Louis XVI., agreed, 
nevertheless, with each other for a time, and with the 
national representation ; and though, with the single ex- 
ception of Carnot, they were not men of peculiar mark, 
their policy was rather mastered by events than of a 
decidedly bad character. They had, indeed, 
Director3^ ^ recourse to One or two expedients of a Jaco- 
bin kind, in the exhausted financial condition 
of the State ; and they levied a temporary forced tax on 
the rich, and were compelled for a few months to return 
to the arbitrary system of requisitions for the troops. 
These measures, however, were soon abandoned, and 
were, perhaps, inevitable in existing circumstances ; nor 
can the Directory be fairly charged with what ought to 
be ascribed to the tyranny of the past. The same kind 
of excuse may be urged for another startling and grave 
act, though not so iniquitous as it appeared. After many 
attempts to avoid the catastrophe, the Directory, with the 
assent of the Councils, deprived the assignats of their 
nominal value, and declared that in all public and private 
transactions they should be estimated only at their real 
worth ; and before long, therefore, this degraded currency 
disappearedwhoUy from circulation. This was National 
N ti 1 B k ^^.nkruptcy in another name ; but as the 
ruptcy virtually Republic had not the means of redeeming 
the thousands of millions of notes' afloat, 
and the State could not exist on worthless paper, no 



1796. The Directory. Bonaparte. 145 

other course was, perhaps, possible ; and, in any case, 
the men of this era were not responsible for the original 
evil. Nor did the abandonment of one of the last devices 
of a revolutionary age create general discontent ; nor was 
the shock as severe and ruinous as Mr. Pitt and others 
supposed it would prove. The assignats, we have seen, 
had for some time been ceasing to be a medium of ex- 
change ; their depreciation had been taken into account 
in all the ordinary dealings of commerce ; and the ulti- 
mate loss by them was comparatively small, as their real 
value had sunk to almost nothing. What the paper sys- 
tem had done was to transfer property to an enormous 
extent by its diminution of fixed debts and payments, 
and by the scope it gave to jobbing speculations. But 
these mischiefs were now of old date; and the conse- 
quences, cruel and unjust as they were, affected classes 
rather than national interests. 

Preparations were made to renew the war 
with increased energy in 1796. The mili- for the cam- 
tary operations of the French, in the last p^^s^ 0^^796- 
months of the preceding year, had been unsuccessful 
to a considerable extent, for Jourdan had been driven 
from Mayence, and Pichegru had dealt treasonably with 
the enemy in his front ; and though a victory had been 
won by the French at Loano, upon the Italian seaboard, 
the tide of fortune ran less favorably for the Republic 
than it had ran before. Two large armies under Jourdan 
and Moreau were massed apart from each other on the 
Middle Rhine for a formidable invasion of Western 
Germany ; and a third, composed of about forty thou- 
sand men, good soldiers, but in extreme want, was en- 
trusted to the youthful Bonaparte, and confronted — 
along the coast from Genoa to Nice, which it had occu- 
pied for a considerable time — a much greater Austrian 
L 



146 7 he Directory. Bo?iaparie. CH. viir. 

and Piedmontese force. The vicinity of the Rhine, 
therefore, was to be the principal scene of events ; but 
the force of genius transformed the situation. Bona- 
parte assumed his command in the first 
of Itaiy™^^'^"^ days of April, and the presence of a su- 
perior mind was at once seen in the opera- 
tions of the French. Deceiving his adversaries by 
rapid demonstrations, he quickly broke 
vades^pled- ^"" through their extended centre ; and, in a 
"^^^ ^rdT ^^ series of brilliant engagements, he divided 
the Piedmontese from the Austrians, drove 
both, routed, in separate retreat, and having, as he said, 
" turned the Genoese Alps," reached Turin in a few days 
. . „ 'in triumph. He now made an armistice 

April 28,1796. , ' . 1 . , 

with the Kmg of Sardmia, which placed the 
fortresses of Piedmont in his hands, and secured his 
communications with France ; and having declined to 
revolutionize a State which might become favorable to 
French policy, he at once directed his whole efforts 
against the Austrians, who, he clearly perceived, were 
, the only foes of real importance in Italy. 

May 9-30, 1790. •' -t ' -i r 

Advancing with a celerity before unknown, 
he anticipated his antagonist,, Beaulieu, on the Po .; and 
after a murderous struggle at Lodi, he entered Milan, 
and overran Lombardy, the Austrian commander being 
unable to contend against such activity and daring, and 
being outnumbered in every encounter. At Milan 
Bonaparte was welcomed with delight, the citizens de- 
testing the Austrian yoke, and being inclined to the new 

principles ; but he halted only to strengthen 

He marches ,. .. ,, . . • n :\ • ^ -t 

to the Adige. his position ; and having terrihed into sub- 
Siege of Man- nijssion the hostile princes of Parma and 
Modena, he made straight for the hne of 
the Adige, which he had marked out, with true military 



1796. The Directory. Bonaparte. 147 

insight, as the real theatre on which to contend with 
Austria for the prize of Italy. Having forced Beau- 
lieu across the Mincio, and compelled him to fall back 
on the Tyrol, he laid siege to Mantua in the first days 
of June ; having previously refused, with equal pru- 
dence and firmness, to obey an order of Carnot to 
march against Rome, which certainly would have led to 
disaster, by needlessly dislocating the French army. 

Great as this success of Bonaparte was, 
the cabinet of Vienna was not disconcerted, jj-ians send" 
and made vigorous efforts to repair its de- rXis^e^^'° 
feats. The French army in Italy was known siege of 

, . - . Mantua, 

to be weak m numbers ; the strength of its and to 
position in the hand.s of a great commander Bonaparte, 
was not understood ; and it was widely be- 
lieved that it was doomed to disaster, thrown forward 
dangerously, as it seemed, round Mantua. The beaten 
divisions of Beaulieu received large reinforcements 
from the Austrians on the . Rhine ; and Wurmser, a 
veteran of high reputation, advanced, in the last days 
of July, with an army that seemed more than powerful 
enough to liberate Mantua, and overwhelm his antago- 
nist. Bonaparte, however, with that rapid de- ^ 
cision which is one of the distinctive marks Wurmser 
of a great leader in war, forestalled admira- of engage- 
bly the Austrian movements; and, raising "^^"*s- 
the siege of Mantua at a moment's notice, encountered his 
enemies as they descended along either shore of the 
Lago di Garda ; and, interposijjg between their divided 
masses, defeated them at Lonato and Cas- 

. ,. Aug. 3 — 0. 

tiglione. He then turned to pursue his 
baffled assailants, advanced boldly to the verge of the 
Tyrol, and routed Wurmser again in the defiles of the 
Brenta, after a march of extraordinary daring and quick- 



148 The Directory. Bonaparte. ch. viii. 

September ^^^^ ' ^^^ though the tenacious Austrian 
1-13, 1796- chief got into Mantua by a circuitous move- 

ment, he had lost the greater part of a gallant army. 
The Austrian government, however, still persisted, and 
a fresh force, under the command of Alvin- 

TheAus- . -,•■,.-,, 

trians send zi, was ouce more directed agamst the ad- 
with'a new versary, who, it was thought, must succumb 
army. ^^ such repeated efforts. The attack proved 

dangerous in the extreme ; the Austrians, though dis- 
seminated in separate masses, forced one of the chief 
positions of their foes ; and Bonaparte, with the main 
body of the French, was almost driven from the barrier 
of the Adige. Alvinzi, however, paused at the decisive 
moment ; his dexterous adversary fell on 

He IS de- ,. , . , - .,. ^ 

feated at his rear, displaymg the greatest fertility of 

November resource ; and victory at last declared for 
14— 17> the French, after a protracted struggle along 

the dykes of Areola. The campaign, nev- 
ertheless, was not yet ended ; and after recruiting his 
worn-out host, Alvinzi again approached the Adige. 

The decisive encounter took place on 
victo^^oF January 14, 1797 ; and the Austrians, di- 
Bonaparte vided and baffled once more, were routed 

at Rivoh ' 

January 14, with terrible effect at Rivoli, on the eastern 

1707* 

shore of the Lago di Garda. This brought 
hostilities to an end for a time ; Mantua opened its gates 
in a few days ; and Bonaparte stood in triumph on the 
line which he had made the centre of his operations, 
having annihilated three armies, each stronger than his 
own. 

. This splendid campaign, still perhaps un- 

on the rivalled, raised Bonaparte at once to the 

Great skill of summit of fame. Its astonishing results 
Bonaparte. were in some degree due to the revolution- 



1 796* The Directory. Bonaparte. 149 

ary influence of France, but far more to the capacity 
for war of the young leader who had appeared on 
the scene. Bonaparte, in this admirable passage of 
arms, had displayed all the qualities of a great captain ; 
sagacity, resolution, boldness, vigor, a perfect knowledge 
of the theatre of operations, and a skill in arranging his 
forces on' it, which completely bewildered his inferior 
opponents. There was, too, another general cause for 
his success which gave a character to his 

° 111 Character 

Strategy, and has wrought a marked change of his 
in the art of war. In consequence of the ^ ^^ ^^' 
multiplication of roads it had become possible to make 
more rapid marches than Generals of a former age 
could attempt ; and, owing to the progress which had 
taken place in husbandry, an army could now often rely 
for supplies on the districts which it happened to go 
through. The old system of slow advances, depending 
mainly on magazines, and retarded by fortresses and 
such obstacles, had thus become, in a great degree, ob- 
solete ; quick and daring attacks and brilliant manoeu- 
vres, the troops living on resources found on the spot, 
had been made more practicable than they had" ever 
been ; and Bonaparte had thoroughly grasped this 
truth, though it had been partially recognized before, 
and it was obviously suggested by examples already set 
by the revolutionary armies. In this campaign we see 
plainly that he conducted war upon these new princi- 
ples ; and, though other causes no doubt aided, the 
circumstance partly explains his success in so often 
routing his adversaries in detail. Nor had he shown the 
qualities of a soldier only in this memorable and arduous 
contest ; he had given proof of no common statecraft, 
and especially of a secret contempt for the propaganda 
of revolutionary ideas, of which the French armies were 



150 The Directory. Bonaparte. ch. viii. 

■ the principal centres.* He had refused, we 

of Bona- have seen, for political reasons, to over- 

throw the Sardinian throne ; and, to the 
astonishment of his lieutenants, he had soon afterwards 
negotiated with the Pope and the Grand Duke of Tus- 
cany, avowed enemies of the Revolution, in an anti- 
revolutionary and diplomatic fashion. It had become 
already evident that a leader had appeared who, for 
good or evil, had little sympathy with the fanaticism of 
liberty and the Rights of Man, powerful levers, as yet, 
of French influence abroad. 

Meanwhile a very different contest had 

Campaign of 

1796 in Ger- been waging beyond the Rhenish frontier. 
Defeats of the Following the essentially vicious plans of 
French. Camot, Jourdan and Moreau had made 

their way into Germany, divided by a wide space of 
country, the first moving along the Thuringian range, 
The Archduke the second skirting the Black Forest. The 
Charles. young Archduke Charles retreated before 

them, though with an army nearly equal in strength ; 
Ability dis- ^'^^ ^^ fought an indecisive battle with Mo- 
piayedbyhim. j-gau at Neresheim, near the Upper Danube. 
As the French generals, however, moved slowly, and 
made no signs of effecting their junction, though now 
only a few marches apart, the Archduke assumed the 
offensive ; and leaving a detachment to hold Moreau in 
check, he marched against that leader's isolated col- 
league, thus imitating the manoeuvres of which Bona- 
parte was giving such splendid examples in Italy. The 

* Napoleon's policy in 1796-7 is set forth by himself in his 
Commentaries. M. Lanfrey, in his Histoire de Napoleon I,, de- 
scribes it with great ability, but in too harsh colors. See chapters 
6, 7,. and 8 of the work. 



179^- "^he Dii^ectory, Bonaparte. 151 

operations, however, of the Austrian commander were 
wanting in the perfect skill and energy conspicuously dis- 
played by his .far greater rival. Jourdan, indeed, was 
beaten in detail, and fell back discomfited to the Rhine ; 
but he was not pursued with daring and vigor, and he 
reached his winter quarters comparatively unhurt. Mo- 
reau, too, after the defeat of Jourdan, got safely out of a 
most difficult position, and made good his retreat through 
the intricate defiles and rocky crags of the Swabian 
Alps ; and he even drove his antagonist baCk, though 
probably had he been boldly attacked by the Archduke 
after he had been left without support, his army -would 
have been almost destroyed. Germany was thus cleared 
of its French invaders, and the Republic met a decided 
reverse ; but nothing really great was accomplished ; 
and the campaign is a striking example how military 
conceptions, however excellent, must be as well executed 
to have marked results. The Archduke, however, just- 
ly acquired renown ; the errors of Carnot were per- 
ceived, and the events of the year proved that in war, 
as in other arts, the same original thoughts, under simi- 
lar conditions, occur sometimes to different minds. 

The state of the Republic had not improved while 
Bonaparte had been conquering on the Adige. The 
prosperity of France, indeed, had gradually augmented, 
as time weakened the effects of the Rdgn of Terror ; 
the distress of the great cities lessened ; knd the revenue 
had begun to show signs of progress. But, in the tran- 
sition from the p^per system, the finances were inevita- 
bly strained to the utmost ; the part of the Debt remained 
unpaid which had escaped the Jacobin sponge ; and the 
treasury was extremely ill-managed, as even the admin- 
istration of it had been withdrawn by the Constitution 
from the Executive government. Complaints, therefore, 



152 The Directory. Bonaparte. ch viir. 

abounded everywhere ; and the animosities had only- 
increased in bitterness, which threatened the State, and 
made it insecure. As Vendemiaire receded into the past. 
Internal state the royaHsts and anti-republicans grew in 
Hc'i ?evhSi'o'f strength; and they drew to their party a 
factions. great many of the disappointed and discon- 

tented men who always abound in a revolutionary time, 
and a still increasing number of the new aristocracy of 
wealth, who had no genuine republican tastes, and 
whose real aspiration was for rest and enjoyment. Dis- 
sensions, too, broke out within the Directory itself ; and 
two of the Five, of whom Carnot was one, inclined at 
least to sentiments opposed to those which prevailed in 
the old Convention ; ever true, in the main, to some 
ideal of a Republic, whether moderate or not. The 
strife of factions was quickened by the elections held in 
1797, which displaced many of the " Conventionals," as 
they were called — the restriction was by this time re- 
moved which had been imposed in 1795 — and filled the 
Legislature to a large extent with deputies of reactionary 
views. The royalists and anti-republicans of all kinds 
began now to assert their power ; and the opposition to the 
government was seconded by reckless and widespread 
intrigues and conspiracies. Pichegru, whose royalist 
leanings had been avowed, though his treason had not 
been vet divulged, became a chief director 

Royalist and "' , , , , . 

reactionary of thcse dishonorable plots, the inevitable 
growth of a revolutionary era ; and though 
the reactionaries were, in the mass, opposed to violent 
changes in the State, they lent themselves to designing 
leaders. Non-juring priests and long-exiled emigres be- 
gan soon to return freely ; the Powers at war with France 
had numerous agents in correspondence with the mal- 
contents ; and plans were set on foot for a Bourbon 



1796. The Directory. Bonaparte. 153 

restoration, to be sustained by a rising in La Vendee. 
In this emergency the three Directors who adhered to 
the existing order of things, sought for aid from the 
power alone capable of throwing a decisive weight into 
the scale, and not disloyal to their authority if not parti- 
cularly attached to it. Hoche moved an armed force to 
the capital, and Augereau, despatched from his camp 
by Bonaparte, was placed at the head of seventy thou- 
sand men to carry out the intended design. On Septem- 
ber 4 the Tuileries pralace, where the Councils held their 
ordinary meetings, was once more surrounded by bands 
of soldiers ; and within a few hours most of the reaction- 
ary deputies were imprisoned and their seats declared 
vacant ; and the principal conspirators, with Pichegru at 
their head, were on their way to a place of foreign 
banishment. The remains of the thinned and purged 
Legislature voted readily the proscription of many sus- 
pected persons, and one of the hostile Directors was in- 
cluded in the list, Carnot having fortunately effected his 
escape. The triumph of the Republicans, in what was 
named the coup d'etat of the i8th Fructidor, Coup d'etat of 

r ,r , 1 J 1 i. the i8th Fruc- 

was for the moment general and complete ; tidor, Septem- 
but the success of this and similar acts of ^^^ 4, 1797- 
violence — for which happily no word exists in our lan- 
guage — could only hasten the military domination which 
was already beginning to be felt everywhere. It was 
also a significant mark of the time that the populace of 
Paris, growing weary of political changes which had 
proved abortive, and of the struggles of warring factions, 
had looked on with passive indifference at the peril of 
the Republic and its temporary success. 

Meanwhile Bonaparte had been extending Conclusion 
the power of France in the Italian Penin- p^Snof '"" 
sula, and, after a brief and brilliant cam- Italy. 



154 The Directory. Bonaparte. CH. viii. 

paign, had brought the war with Austria to a close. 
The first success of the French on the Po had agitated 
the States between the Appenines and the Alps ; and 
national and revolutionary passions had made the 
invaders welcome in many places, though sentiments 
were a good deal divided, and the excesses of the so- 
called liberators — especially the robbery of works of 
art, which were sent as spoils to the museums of Paris 
— ^had caused more than one angry rising. After the 
complete triumph of 1796 the opinion of the masses 
became more evident ; and though the old aristocracy 
of Venice remained bitterly hostile to the French ideas, 
the Modenese, the subjects of the Pope, and the great 
body of the people of Lombardy, had risen against 
foreign or hated rulers, and attached themselves to the 

victorious Republic. Bonaparte, wielding 
poHcy^of^'^ already enormous power, ably turned the 
^s"and-*^^ ' movement to his own advantage, and to that 
revolution- of the Directory in a secondary degree ; he 

obtained considerable territories from the 
Pope, as the price of sparing Rome and the adjoining 
Provinces ; and while he levied ample contributions 
from them, he gave or promised the Italians "liberty" 
within the districts he had annexed or occupied. He 
steadily carried out, however, this policy of compromise, 
and of moderating Revolution ; and, while he treated the 
Italian States and their Sovereigns with a view rather to 
his own objects, or to immediate political interests, than 
with the least regard to Republican notions, it was ob- 
served that he had no sympathy with what he contemp- 
tuously called the multitude, and that he thoroughly 

despised its hopes and passions. Mean- 
He marches ., . - 

on Vienna while, his army, largely recruited from all 
rom ta y. parts of France, had grown truly formida- 



1796- The Directory, Bonaparte. 155 

ble ; and he took the field again in the spring of 1797. 
Austria had no forces sufficient to oppose his march; 
and though the Archduke Charles made a gallant 
resistance, Bonaparte swept over the Italian Alps and 
hastened down their German slopes towards Vienna. 
An armistice was signed on April 7, within sight of the 
domes of the Austrian capital ; and Bonaparte, having 
with a force comparatively small conquered from the 
Var almost to the Danube, and broken the strength of 
the Austrian Monarchy, dictated in a few months the 
terms of peace. By this treaty, known as Treaty of 
that of Campo Formio, Austria ceded Bel- Campo 

^ rormio, 

gium to the French Republic, and, as head October 17, 
of the Empire, agreed to the cession of the ^^^''' 
German Provinces on the French bank of the Rhine ; 
and she consented that Lombardy and several adjoining 
States should be formed into a Cisalpine Republic, of 
course a mere dependency of its French original. In 
return for these immense losses, Bonaparte flung her 
Venice as a spoil, notwithstanding a protest from the 
Directory ; and his conduct in this was very 
characteristic. The Venetian oligarchy had y^ance 
certainly been a thorn in his side while he 
was on the Adige ; and after he had disappeared beyond, 
the German Alps it had stirred up an insurrection in his 
rear. But, long before the peace of Campo Formio was 
made, the Republic had become a democracy appa- 
rently subservient to French authority ; and, 
nevertheless, Bonaparte deliberately sacri- Venicel^° 
ficed a people and a State, once an ally of 
France, in order, as he avowed, to sow dissensions 
among the late Coalition, which, with the exception of 
the Power aggrandized, resented the transfer of Venice 
to Austria. The act was not so ineffably base as it has 



156 The Directoiy. Bonaparte. ch. viii. 

been described by historical censors ; but it was very- 
significant of a policy of craft, of expediency, and of 
hard self-interest, opposed to all the revolutionary pro- 
fessions. 
^ „ , In this manner a youth of twenty-seven 

Reflections on ' •' 

the conduct of had struck down the only remaining enemy 
onapar e. feared by the Republic on the Continent, 
had consolidated and widely increased its conquests, 
and had shed a glory on the arms of France more splen- 
did than she had ever known. The right of France to 
what the national sentiment had recognized as her natu- 
ral limits had been admitted by her great German rival : 
her influence extended, beyond, from the Adige to the 
Texel ; and a dream which Richelieu would have dis- 
missed as idle had been realized in perfect completeness. 
^ , . .A burst of enthusiasm went up from the 

Enthusiasm in , . , 

France at his popular heart to hail the warrior who had 
done these great deeds ; and the name of 
Bonaparte, scarcely known before, was in every mouth 
in France as a word of marvel. Hardly less astonish- 
ment was felt in Europe, too, at the extraordinary 
achievements of the young conqueror ; and the feeling 
was largely mingled with genuine admira- 

Admiration . , . -- V»- 

felt for him in tion. The diplomatists of Piedmont, Aus- 
urope. \x\2l, and Rome, had recognized in Bona- 

parte a kind of sympathy with the established Powers 
and old order of Europe, surprising in a negotiator of a 
Revolutionary State ; and several of them had said that 
no other General of .the devouring Republic would have 
been so moderate. Bonaparte had also treated his de- 
feated opponents with delicate and becoming courtesy ; 
and he had displayed to soldiers and statesmen whom 
he wished to please the charm of a manner which pos- 
sessed an inscrutable and mysterious fascination. He 



1797' The Directory. Bonaparte. 157 

was thus, an object of the respect and flattery of even the 
most resolute enemies of France ; and he was regarded 
by the enfranchised Itahans as a deHverer all the more 
to be loved because one of their own race and blood. 

Surrounded thus by a halo of glory, Bona- He returns to 
parte left Italy to return to France, and rec^e^ved wlth^ 
after passing hastily through Rastadt, where acclamation. 
the States of the Empire were negotiating a peace that 
seemed inevitable after Campo Formio, he quietly re- 
turned to the modest house in Paris which he had quitted 
a comparatively unknown soldier. He was greeted with 
an enthusiasm such as never had been seen since the 
days of Louis XIV., though, either from inclination or a 
studied policy, he avoided the public gaze, and seemed 
to court solitude. The capital shone in an December 
array of splendor which contrasted strangely ^797- 
with the horrors of a few years before ; and the conque- 
ror of Areola and Rivoli was the only object in the eyes 
of the multitudes who crowded to celebrate his great 
exploits in festivals in which the antique pomp of the 
Roman Commonwealth curiously blended with the glitter 
and luxury of a modern age. How long would the 
obscure Heads of a divided, feeble, and revolutionary 
government withstand the influence of the young hero, 
who seemed to carry fortune at the point of his sword ; 
how long could the Republic co-exist with this glorious 
personification of the military power, which already 
encompassed it on every side ? 



158 Egypt and the \Zth Brumaire, ch. ix. 



CHAPTER IX. 

EGYPT AND THE i8tH BRUMAIRE. 

rp, jy The homage rendered to Bonaparte, and 

jealous of Bo- the great influence he already enjoyed, gave 
umbrage to the Republican government. 
The causes of dissension were already numerous, for 
the haughty independence of the young General, his 
contempt of all military schemes but his own, his sacri- 
fice of Venice, and the sovereign attitude he had as- 
sumed in the negotiations with foreign Powers, and, 
above all, his supremacy over his troops, had been 
viewed with alarm and suspicion ; and when, after his 
return to France, he was welcomed as the image of her 
glories, his ascendency irritated the eclipsed Directory. 
Nor did the subsequent conduct of Bonaparte tend to 
reassure the weak chiefs of the State, who dreaded an 
authority they did not themselves possess. Though he 
continued to live in extreme simplicity, and seemed to 
prefer the society of men of letters and science to poli- 
tical affairs, he had let fall expressions which revealed a 
dislike of a feeble and disunited government, and the 
junta in office instinctively felt that his presence was a 
rebuke and menace-to them, though jealousy was masked 
under a show of deference. Either from a desire to get 
rid of a foe, or possibly from a higher motive, the 
Directory soon tried to engage Bonaparte in an enter- 
prise which, if of tempting promise, was one of extraordi- 
nary difficulty and peril. England, after Campo Formio, 



1798. Egypt and the i8th Brumaire, ' 159 

was the only ereat Power that remained at ^, 

. . . They engage 

war with the victorious . Repubhc ; and the him to auempt 
Directory, exasperated at a recent failure to England, °" 
negotiate with a British envoy, invited Bo- 
naparte to make a descent on our coasts, a project for 
which Hoche — that remarkable man had just died, 
amidst general regret — had always had a strong predi- 
lection. An expedition of this kind, however, had been 
unsuccessful in 1796, and the battles of Camperdown 
and of St. Vincent had annihilated the fleets of the Ba- 
tavian Republic and of Spain, now an ally of France ; 
and Bonaparte declared the scheme premature, and 
suggested another which he thought more hopeful. His 
mind, imaginative and calculating alike to a degree of 
force which has been seldom witnessed, had even in 
Italy turned to the East and the ancient centres of his- 
toric power ; and he proposed to invade and ^^ 

T- 1 1 r "^ proposes to 

occupy Egypt — that stage on the way from invade Egypt, 
Europe to Asia which has always attracted the 
thoughts of ambition. The Directory joyfully sanctioned a 
plan which would certainly remove a dreaded rival, and, if 
successful, would make France predominant in the Medi- 
terranean Sea ; and Bonaparte was given ample means 
to carry out the intended design. His preparations were 
made with a secrecy and skill which showed a high fa- 
culty for organization ; convoys were collected in the 
Italian ports, and troops directed upon the sea-coast, so 
as to conceal the project as long as possible, and in 
May, 1798, the expedition set sail from Toulon. It con- 
sisted of a powerful fleet and army ; and its Expedition to 
leader perhaps entertained hopes of imita- ^gypt- 
ting the career of Alexander, and, after subduing and 
colonizing Egypt, of marching from the Nile to the 
Indus. 



i6o Egypt and the i8th Brumaire. ch. ix. 

While this enterprise was being set on 
Congress of fQQt ^^g Congress of Rastadt had been 

Rastadt. *=" 

sitting, and negotiations were going on for 
peace on the Continent. Prussia, which since th treaty 
of 1795 had ahnost become an ally of France, had se- 
cretly rejoiced at the defeats of Austria, and saw in the 
present confusion of Europe the means of extending her 
power in Germany, fell in with the policy of the Repub- 
lic ; and, in consideration of benefits to herself, assented 
to French annexations on the Rhine, to the humiliation 
of lesser German States, and to the annihilation of Im- 
perial Bishoprics, a favorite object of the Directory. 
This selfish and unpatriotic state-craft — a main cause 
of that habit of aggression and of intervention in the 
affairs of Germany which Prussian writers have laid to 
the charge of France for their own ends — ^was opposed 
by many of the German princes ; but, as Austria had 
retired from the contest, and the divided Empire was left 
without a head, a renewal of the war appeared impossi- 
ble. This would have been the case in or- 
^u"erof°^ dinary times; but ancient privilege and 
discord in democratic ideas were in a state of angry 

collision in the countries approached by the 
French revolution ; and though hostilities had not broken 
out, the prospects of peace did not brighten. Causes of 
fresh troubles quickly arose when Europe was in this 
disturbed condition, and they were aggravated by the 
republican ardor and arrogant pretensions of the Direc- 
tory, though the real impulse lay much 
oftheLigu- deeper. Before Bonaparte had left Italy, 
ve^?an and Genoa had formed herself into a Ligurian 
Roman Re- Republic ; and not long afterwards a demo- 

pubucs. ... . 

cratic rising occurred in several of the Swiss 
cantons, and after a sanguinary civil war an Helvetian 



1798. r^ypt and the i8th Bruinaire. 161 

RenMblic had been established by French influence and 
French bayonets. This was followed by a violent out- 
break in Holland, which for a time completely over- 
whelmed the party of the House of Orange, and of the 
old order of things ; and before long the French invaded 
the territories of the Pope, set up a Roman Republic in 
his States, and filled Piedmont with revolutionary agents, 
against the conditions of recent treaties. The march of 
the Revolution hastened, accordingly, in a state of nomi- 
nal peace as well as in war ; and the French govern- 
ment encouraged its progress by their fanatical zeal and 
reckless want of scruple. It is not surprising, therefore, 
when France had lost for a time her most dreaded com- 
mander, that several of the European Powers should 
have begun to watch events, and prepare for war ; that 
the negotiations should have proceeded slowly ; and 
that even Austria should have thought of arming once 
more, more especially as the genius and the gold of Mr. 
Pitt had been engaged in endeavoring to cement again 
the Coalition which had been recently dissolved. 
The Continent was in this unquiet state Bonaparte 

^ . lands in Egypt, 

when an unexpected event decided the is- Juiyi, 1798. 
sue to which affairs had been slowly tending. Bona- 
parte had reached in safety the shores of Egypt, the 
French fleet, though with immense convoys, having 
eluded the watch of the English cruisers, and having 
even had time to seize and occupy the great Mediterra- 
nean fortress of Malta. His army had landed, and, 
crossing the verge of the Desert, had routed the Mame- 
luke horsemen in a battle fought within _ ^ . . . 

° Battle of the 

sight of the Pyramids ; and he had triurnph- Nile, Aug. i, 
antly made his way to Cairo, where he had stmction of 
endeavored to estabhsh a French colony. Jjj.et^'^^"'^^ 
But in the meantime his fleet had been com- 
M 



1 62 J^gypi and the i8th Brumaire, ch. ix. 

pletely destroyed by the great English sailor whose ma- 
ncEuvres at sea bore a certain resemblance to his 
own on land ; and he seemed cut off with his army 
from France, and imprisoned within his precarious con- 
quest. The victory of Nelson determined the Powers 
which hitherto had been afraid to strike, and new names 
were added to the list of the enemies of the hated Re- 
, ^ public. Hostilities were proclaimed in the 

Renewal of^. -.., * ^ 

the war in wmter of 1 798, and it soon became evident 
urope. ^-j^^^ ^^ contest would rage from the Zuyder 

Zee to the Straits of Messina, and would spread over 
part of the Turkish Empire. The Porte undertook to 
attack Bonaparte ; the Court of Naples set an army on 
foot to invade the newly-created Roman Republic ; Aus- 
tria prepared for a fresh struggle on the Rhine and the 
Adige, aided by a large reinforcement from Russia, 
which had only threatened in 1793. Except Prussia, 
Germany generally concurred ; and England gladly 
threw her sword into the balance. The Directory, elated 
by late successes, met the challenge of its foes with de- 
fiance, and looked forward confidently to a new series 
of triumphs. An unhappy incident which 
French pleni- had lately occurred, and which threw a 
ITastadtjApril dark stain on the House of Austria — the 
28, 1799- murder of the plenipotentiaries of France 

at Rastadt — had given the Heads of the Republic the 
strength arising from widespread national indignation ; 
and, as they had, so to speak, organized the levee en 
masse of a few years before, by the celebrated measure 
„, ^ , called the " Conscription," which at this 

The Conscnp- . ^ 

tion. moment is the foundation of the enormous 

armies that cover Europe, they prepared for hostilities 
on the greatest scale. 
The campaign which followed is of little interest as 



1 799. ^Sypi ^^^ the i8th Brumaire i d^t 

an illustration of the art of war. On both ^, 

. , , . , ^ . . 1 Character of 

Sides the antiquated system 01 timid opera- the campaign 
tions along an immense front, and of pausing ° ^^^^" 
at obstacles, was, in the main, adopted ; and Switzerland 
became the chief scene of the strife, in deference to the 
wholly unsound theory that the possession of a moun- 
tain range ensures a decisive advantage to a belligerent, 
apart from any other consideration. Though 
generally ill-led, the aUied armies had for French. °^'^^ 
months a great superiority over the French ; 
and they certainly might have invaded France, and not 
improbably have occupied Paris, had they been directed 
with real energy and skill. In the South, indeed, the 
Neapolitan levies were routed with ease upon the Tiber ; 
and under the impulse of the success of ^ 

. Formation of 

their foes, Naples was changed into the the Pantieno- 
Parthenopsean Republic, and the King of ^*^" ^^" 
Sardinia was expelled from Piedmont. But on the 
points where the contest was most important, fortune was 
long adverse to the French armies ; and they lost the 
fruits of the glorious struggle of 1796, though ultimately 
saved from the extreme of peril. Jourdan was defeated 
with heavy loss at Stochach, between the „ , , 

1 • Ai 1 1 T 1 r ^ Battle of 

Swabian Alps and the Lake of Constance ; Stochach, 
and had not the Archduke Charles been ^^*^ ^5,1799- 
compelled, by the military or Aulic Council at Vienna, 
to waste his strength among the hills of Uri, he might 
have crossed the Rhine, invaded Alsace, and turned tile 
whole line of the French in Switzerland. Meanwhile 
the Austrians, feebly resisted, had forced the great bar- 
rier of the Adige, and before long the warriors of Mantua 
and Rivoli were driven from the Mincio across the Adda, 
pursued by the enemies they had so often beaten, and 
by a Russian army under Suwarrow, a celebrated vete- 



164 Egypt and the i8th Bruniaire, CH. ix, 

ran of the reign of Catherine. Moreau, who had been 
for some time in disgrace, for supposed compUcity with 
the crime of Pichegru, which had come to Hght after the 
1 8th Fructidor, was now raised to command in Italy, 
and endeavored to eifect his junction with 

Battles of the ,, , ,, . ^ •' ^ ^ . 

Trebbiaand Macdonald, commg up from the South 
i8%\'id igtand across the Apennines; but though Suwar- 
August 15,1799- row showed no skill, the two French gene- 
rals were completely beaten along the historic banks of 
the Trebbia. This was followed by another defeat at 
Novi; and though the populations of the 

The French * ,,. ^'.^^ ,^ 

driven from ncw Rcpublics remamcd true to the French 
"^^ ^* cause, the allied armies overran the Penin- 

sula, and Italy was lost more quickly than it had been 
won, with the exception of Genoa and a few other for- 
tresses. The war might have been easily carried into 
France had the allies now acted with real vigor ; but a 
fatal error caused a sudden change of fortune. A com- 
bined English and Russian force, under the 
English de- too Celebrated Duke of York, had made a 
scent on Hoi- ^gg^^g^t on the coasts of Holland ; and the 
Archduke Charles was directed, on the 
Lower Rhine, to co-operate with this remote detach- 
ment. This movement, made against the will of the 
Austrian chief, weakened the force opposed to the 
French in Switzerland ; and Massena, the ablest lieute- 
nant of Bonaparte, and trained in the lessons of 1796, 
Battle of Zu- seized the favorable opportunity presented 
w ^s^-Sr™" to him. He fell on the Russian Korsakoff 
^799- in his front, and crushed him in a great 

battle at Zurich ; and Suwarrow lost three-fourths of his 
army in a fruitless attempt to support his colleague. 
This reverse as usual, caused dissensions to break out 
in the camp of the allies, and these were only increased 



1799' ^Sypi ^^d i^^^ ^^^^^ Brumaire. 165 

by the inglorious failure of the Duke of York in his 
advance into Holland, which the Archduke's diversion 
could not really aid. Offensive operations ^ 

■' ^ It saves 

were given up, and the territory of France France from 
remained intact ; though the armies of the 
coalition, with Italy in their grasp, had their outposts on 
the borders of Provence. 

Meanwhile, torn by intestine factions, the Lamentable 

/. x- 1 J T- J T • internal state 

government of France had been declmmg oftheRepub- 
rapidly ; and the state of the Repubhc had ^^^• 
become lamentable. The coup d'6tat of the i8th Fruc- 
tidor had given a triumph to the extreme republicans ; 
and the expiring remains of the Jacobins lifted their 
heads again in a threatening manner. The Directory 
and the Councils, becoming alarmed, turned strife of 
violently against the enemies they feared ; factions. 
and several " patriots " of a Jacobin type having been 
returned at the election of 1798, the reckless course was 
again taken of declaring the seats of these deputies 
vacant, as had been done in the case of the opposite 
party. The Constitution was thus set at naught twice ; 
and though the conduct of the ruling powers was less to 
blame than at first sight appears, the Republic became 
more feeble than ever, and degenerated into a divided, 
oligarchy, discredited, unpopular, and merely upheld by 
the military force on which it rested. The renewal of 
the war in 1798 gave extreme offence to the wealthy 
classes, and roused once more anti-republican hopes, 
though the fate of the envoys at Rastadt had, we have 
seen, provoked a storm of indignation ; and measures 
on which the Directory unwisely ventured — a renewal 
of the forced tax on the rich, and a declaration which 
practically swept away the greater part of the remaining 
Debt — caused widespread irritation, and alarm. At 



1 66 -Egypt and the i8th Brumaire. ch. ix. 

The reverses of this crisis the revcrses of 1799 came to exas- 
1799 cause all perate passion and discontent, led to fresh 

parties to com- -"^ , -^ 

bine against exhibitions of Weak oppression, and precip- 
irec cry. -^^^^^ ^^ decline of the imperilled State. All 
parties combined against the Directory, with character- 
istic national vehemence, in the panic caused by defeat 
and fear ; and two of the Directors were thrown out as a 
sacrifice, though the change could produce no good con- 
sequence. Meanwhile, the beaten chiefs of the armies, 
who for some time had chafed a good deal against a 
despised civilian rule, exhaled their grievances in angry 
complaints ; and popular leaders, appearing once more, 
clamored for the energy of 1793, and compelled the 
,„ ■ , government to have recourse to laws of an 

ruin of the extreme kind against priests and hnigris^ 
and to arbitrary military and financial expe- 
riments. At the same time, at the news of the success 
of the allies. La Vendee showed symptoms of rising ; 
the sources of revenue quickly dried up ; the armies 
driven upon the frontier, from the fertile tracts on which 
they had lived, were reduced to a state of extreme want ; 
and between dread of a counter-revolution, and of a 
revival of the Reign of Terror, the thoughts of all the 
moderate part of the nation turned eagerly to what had 
long been their wish — a strong government that would 
defend France, and save the interests produced by the 
Revolution. In the shipwreck which me- 

Desire for a . i • -n ^ ^• i 

strong Govern- naced the smkmg Republic, the ommous 
"^^" ■ words "we must have a chief" dropped 

Sieyes. from Sieyes,* the most far-sighted of the gov- 



* The Abbe Si6yes was bom in 1748, and in 1784 was made 
Vicar-General of the diocese of Chartres. He devoted himself to 
political speculation, and having written a pamphlet on the state 



1799- ^Sypi ^^^^ ih^ 1 8th Bnimaire. \(i'i 

erning Five ; and in the Legislature, the armies and the 
great body of the people, a sentiment which had been 
growing up that a complete change of system was 
needed acquired at once irresistible force. 

While this was the state of France and „ , 

Fortunes of 

Europe, Bonaparte, undismayed by dangers Bonaparte 
around, had been carrying on his daring ^^ ^^ ' . 
enterprise in the corner of Africa where he seemed im- 
prisoned. Having, in some measure, pacified Egypt by 
a policy of mingled craft and rigor, he advanced into 
Syria across the isthmus, not impossibly — such was the 
wide sweep of that dazzling yet capacious intellect — 
with an ulterior design of reaching Persia and descend- 
ing on India by the Euphrates. He was, however, baf- 
fled by English energy in an attempt to secure a hold 
on the coast ; and having, to his bitter disappointment, 
raised the siege of Acre, he was forced to „ ^ ., 

1 ' T^ TT ^ r He fails at 

retrace his steps to Egypt. He was before Acre, March 
long assailed by the Turkish hordes sent by ^ ^^' ^^^^' 
the Porte to assure his overthrqjv ; but he defeated them 
with terrific carnage ; and having reached the seaboard, 
not far from the spot where he had disembarked more 
than twelve months before, he received intelligence for 
the first time of the great reverses of 1799. His reso- 
lution was taken at once ; and if ambition was his ru- 
ling motive, it is puerile to charge him with fear and per- 

of the Commons in France, which became famous, was returned 
to the States-General in 1789. His courage, however, was not 
equal to his intellect, and he sank into nothingness during the most 
stormy times of the Revolution. Having joined the party which 
overthrew Robespierre, he afterwards became one of the Directory, 
and promoted the Revolution of the i8th Brumaire, He sank into 
inglorious wealth and repose during the Empire, and lived to see 
Louis XVHL restored to the throne. 



1 68 -Egypt a7id the i8th Brumaire. ch. ix. 

On hearing the ^^"^ ' He gave his Command to Kleber, 
news of the his well-tried lieutenant, his army being at 
France, he the moment safe, and even without an ene- 
leaves Egypt. ^^ ^^ \,^,x,d.'; and he Set off without delay 
for France, where, he rightly conjectured, his presence 
was sought, and where, too, such a man was wanting. 
He landed in October, 1799, on the shores of Provence, 
having fortunately slipped through the English fleets ; 
and his landing, when known, became the signal for a 
burst of national and heartfelt welcome which revealed 

_ , . the instincts of the great mass of French- 

Enthusiasm ° 

with which he men. At every stage on his way to Paris he 
his way to w^s greeted by enthusiastic crowds, as the 
and in Pans. -^^^^ hope of France in her hour of misfor- 
tune ; and the feelings of the soldiery rose to the height 
of fanaticism at the sight of their well-known leader. In 
the capital the excitement was intense ; the popu- 
lace and the garrison openly hailed the conqueror of 
Italy as the Chief of the State ; and even the Councils 
and the Directory, swept along by the vehement tide of 
opinion, felt or feigned reverence and exultation. 

In this state of affairs the existing govern- 

He at once . . - 

becomes the ment could not contmue for any length of 
power!" ^^ time. Within a few days Bonaparte had 
become the real centre of political power ; 
all parties, except the extreme Republicans, who in- 
stinctively felt he was a deadly enemy, and especially 
the new aristocracy of riches, gathered around him 
with anxiety and hope ; and the chiefs of the Army 
readily concurred, although divided by mutual jealous- 
ies. Two of the Directors, Sieyes being one, belong- 
ing to the enlightened Moderates, assented to the Revo- 
lution visibly impending ; and a majority of the An- 
cients agreed to second another coup d'etat m the in- 



1799* Egypt and the \?>th Brumaire. 169 

terest of Bonaparte. That leader, who with He prepares a 

^ coup a etat 

his wonted insight had seemed to keep to change the 
aloof, and had bided his time, now made ^^^^'^^ 
his preparations for the crisis at hand ; and if his acts 
were marked by stratagem and guile, they were not 
stained by the cruelty and blood which had hitherto 
been the disgrace of similar changes. On the allegation 
of a Jacobin plot in Paris, the Ancients „, , „ 
voted, on the i8th Brumaire (November 9, maire, Nov. 9, 
1799), that both the Councils should repair ^^^" 
to St. Cloud, the object being to deprive the Legislature 
of the means of resistance, and to dissolve it quietly. 
Meanwhile, the garrison of the capital had been gained ; 
watches had been placed on the National Guards, and 
the Heads of the long powerless Commune, in order to 
prevent a further outbreak ; the habitation of Barras, 
Gohier, and Moulins, the three Directors, not in the se- 
cret, was surrounded by troops ; and Siey^s and his col- 
league Ducos broke up the government by a formal re- 
signation of the offices they held. Bonaparte was thus 
made suddenly master of Paris, with the soldiery and 
its leaders devoted to him ; and as all that he had done 
was welcomed by the immense majority of the citizens, 
his easy triumph appeared assured. Of all Powers, 
however, a popular assembly most keenly resents an 
act of indignity ; and the Council of Five Hundred, 
when it found itself deceived and decoyed away on a 
mere pretext, broke out in fierce and threatening com- 
plaints, though largely composed of the very party 
which secretly desired a change in the State. On the 
following day, Bonaparte appeared at St. Cloud, " to ex- 
plain," as he said, " his conduct ;" but he was met with 
exclamations of hatred and terror ; and for Scenes in 

' Assembly at 

a moment his position was critical, for the St. cioud. 



170 Egypt a7id the i^th Brumaire. CH, ix. 

guard around the Assembly wavered. The die, how- 
ever, had been cast ; the president of the Five Hun- 
dred, Lucien, a brother of Bonaparte, declared the 
Council lawfully dissolved ; the hall was cleared by 
armed men of hostile deputies, and a sufficient number 
^ . . remained to sanction the already accom- 

J^ormation of . ■' 

a provisional plished transfer of power. A provisional 
Bonaparte ' government was next appointed ; but though 
First Consul, j^. ^^^ composed of three consuls, two being 
Siey^s and his facile colleague, Bonaparte, as First Con- 
sul, was really supreme. 

Character Such was the coup (T ttat of the i8th Bru- 

oftheRe- Hiaire, one of the principal events in the 
the i8th French Revolution, and, indeed, in the an- 

rumaire ^^^ ^^ modern Europe. The Republic was 

to exist for a time in name, as the Roman Senate sur- 
vived Pharsalia ; but though the truth was veiled under 
decent forms, the new Csesar was everything from 
the first ; and history before long was to repeat itself, 
and to see the rise of a Caesarian empire. In over- 
throwing the existing government of France, Bonaparte, 
doubtless, acted without scruple, and was not superior to 
ambitious selfishness ; and in the snare he laid for the 
Five Hundred — an unwise deception, which 
on^ thereon- provokcd to anger an assembly really not 
duct of hostile — ^we see that contempt of popular 

Bonaparte ^ r r tr 

and on the sentiment, and of everything associated with 

march of , ^ 1 • 1 , . . . , 

events. popular lorces, which was a distinctive mark 

of his character, and one of the most stri- 
king defects in it. But the Catos who denounce Brumaire 
as a crime and an " assassination of French liberty " 
simply misunderstand or distort facts ; and views such 
as these entirely miss the true nature of the French 
Revolution. Bonaparte had really France on his side 



1 799. ^gyp^ cind the 1 8M Brumaire. 171 

in thrusting the Directors from their seats, and merely 
accelerated the course of events which had long pointed 
to military rule ; and History can fairly say for him that 
the Dictatorship he seized was perhaps needed, was cer- 
tainly the choice of the French People, and, as he truly 
boasted, " cost not a drop of blood." As ^, 

The coup 

for the " liberty " which he has been charged A'ttat was 

• V J i • -1. £ i. not a crime. 

With destroymg, it was a mere figment 
without real existence; and he could not have struck 
the Republic down had it had a root in the national 
heart. In fact, the Revolution, in its whole course, had 
been unfavorable to the growth of true popular rights 
and of republican institutions in any real sense ; and 
the nature of events and the disposition of Frenchmen 
had concurred to produce that despotism of the sword 
of which Bonaparte was only the most splendid image. 
It would have been a task of extraordinary difficulty to 
have founded anything like freedom upon the corruption 
of the old Monarchy ; and the Legislation of the Na- 
tional Assembly, and the passions generated in the war 
that followed, only led to anarchy and tyranny com- 
bined. As for the Republic, it was the mere offspring 
of passion ; and, after the experience of the Reign of 
Terror, a reaction against it quickly set in, which, not- 
withstanding all the Directory could have done, would 
have proved irresistible in the course of time. Besides, 
in the actual state of France and Europe, a Republic 
which required the nurture of peace could hardly have 
acquired in any case stability ; the short-lived Republic 
which was set up soon yielded to the influence of the 
sword ; and, tried among a people ill suited to it by 
temperament and historical tradition, it could, perhaps, 
only end in failure. The proneness of Frenchmen to 
bow to power and to admire military grandeur and sue- 



» 



172 Marengo. Luneville. Amiens. ch. x. 

cess hastened the Revolution already at hand, when a 
crisis of national danger appeared ; and the Hour, when 
it came, found a Man who satisfied the wants, the hopes, 
and the fancy of the Nation. In these circumstances 
the 1 8th Brumaire can be hardly matter of surprise or 
censure, though in the suddenness of the Revolution 
itself we see another proof of the passionate mobility and 
changeableness of the French character. 



CHAPTER X. 

MARENGO. LUNEVILLE. AMIENS. 

Wise and heal- The first care of the new ruler of France — 
the First Con- ^^6 asccndcncy of Bonaparte was at once 
^^' complete — was in some measure to restore 

the finances, the condition of which had become deplo- 
rable. The First Consul had brought to this task a reso- 
lute will, a commanding intellect, and a faculty of 
organization perhaps never surpassed ; and enjoyed 
advantages, to carry out his object, beyond the reach of 
the fallen government. The moneyed classes, who had 
given him support in the Revolution which had placed 
him in power, advanced readily considerable funds to 
supply the needs of the exhausted treasury ; and, as the 
resources of France were really immense, trade revived 
and the revenue increased at the first sign of order and 
Financial Confidence. The government, however, had 

reforms. recourse to other means to place the finances 



i8oo. Marengo^ Luneville. Amiens. 173 

on a better footing, and to some extent to improve public 
credit. Bonaparte obtained the services of a very able 
man, who had refused to hold office from the Directory ; 
and under the skilful care of Gaudin — a minister of real 
capacity and worth — a series of admirable reforms were 
begun in the whole financial system of the State. The 
iniquitous forced tax on the rich was abolished; and 
while the direct taxes which since 1789 had formed the 
only ordinary sources of supply were distributed and 
raised with a regard to justice, an attempt — feeble in- 
deed, and tentative at first, but ultimately leading to 
marked results — was made to return to some of the indi- 
rect taxes, which had been recklessly and unfairly re- 
moved in the transports of revolutionary passion. At 
the same time a thorough change was made in the mode 
of collecting the public imposts, which had been waste- 
ful and offensive alike ; and, by arrangements in some 
degree borrowed from the practice of the old Monarchy, 
but modified and improved by modern experience, re- 
ceipts were rendered more quick and certain, while con- 
siderable sums were immediately obtained from the new 
officials who had become collectors. Provision was also 
made for the payment of the debt, or rather what re- 
mained of it, which had been unpaid for a considerable 
time, and before long national insolvency had ceased. 
The surviving Jacobins and extreme Republicans com- 
plained truly that more than one of these measures had 
too much in common with the old order of things ; but 
with the First Consul this was an idle objection, and 
these reforms were alike judicious and able. Sufficient 
means were in this way obtained to satisfy the most 
pressing wants of the State, and especially to relieve the 
armies, the distress of which had become lamentable ; 
and the foundations were laid of financial order. The 



174 Marengo. Luneville. Afniens. ch. x. 

First Consul, however, went much further ; and, as soon 
as he had secured power, he endeavored to bind up the 
wounds of the Nation, and to mitigate the animosities 
Fortunate posi- which distracted France. His position and 
tionofBona- ^q accidents of his Hfe contributed larsrelv 

parte as a me- o j 

diator between to serve his purpose ; for, as authority really 

factions, i-i-i i t ■,■,-, ■, 

centered m his hands, and he had taken no 
part in the Revolution, it had become possible, espe- 
cially in the comparative quiescence of the passions of the 
past, to carry out a policy at once more equable, more 
firm, and of a more conciliatory nature than the Direc- 
tory or Convention could have attempted. The benefits 
he conferred in this respect on France from the first 
Laws against moment do not admit of question. His 
grls^repeaied *" attention was directed to the clergy first, 
or mitigated, "who, as we have seen, had been an object 
of jealousy and proscription for many years, and had 
been persecuted with fresh rigor after a brief instant of 
illusory clemency. The First Consul, until the time 
should arrive for a permanent settlement of ecclesiastical 
affairs, procured the repeal of the most severe laws of 
the Revolution against the Catholic priesthood ; and he 
weakened a source of sacerdotal hate by substituting for 
the irritating test imposed by the National Assembly a 
simple oath of allegiance to the State, to be taken by- 
clergymen of all descriptions. This wise policy made 
good subjects of thousands of men who had hitherto 
used their influence against the whole course of the 
Revolution since 1789 ; and as ministers of religion of 
all kinds were not only tolerated but even encouraged, 
while perfect freedom of conscience remained, the fierce 
dissensions lessened to some extent which had been so 
grievous in this particular. The next soothing measure 
of the First Consul was to abolish many of the sangui- 



i8oo. Marengo. Luneville. Amiens, 175 

nary decrees indiscriminately passed against the 6migris 
in a mass, and to extend an amnesty to certain classes 
of them ; and in this manner a number of exiles who 
hitherto had fought in the ranks of her foes began to 
return to France, to support the new government, and 
to detach themselves from the Bourbon cause. Finally, 
the troubles which had arisen in La Vendee Pacification of 
were appeased, to a considerable extent, by ^a Vendee. 
recurring to the judicious poHcy of Hoche, carried out 
with a firm yet clement hand ; and though one or two 
severe examples were made, the system of moderation 
was the general rule. 

By these prudent and just measures the 
State, which seemed in hopeless decline, coveryof 
regained speedily new life and vigor ; and '^^"*^^' 
France was restored in a few, months to an extent which 
might have been thought impossible. Meanwhile the 
task of framing a new constitution for the still nominal 
Republic had been given to Sieyes, the ablest of the 
makers of systems who had been so numerous in the 
Revolution. It would be hardly necessary to notice the 
results of this work, which left the greatest changes of 
1789, now beyond recall, entirely intact, and- merely 
substituted a new State machinery for that which had 
been swept away, if it were not that the " Constitution 
of the year VIII." — this was the name of the new 
political growth — illustrated curiously the cast of thought 
now prevalent among men of experience in France, and 
supplied some of the illusory forms which concealed the 
power of the new Chief of the State. 

The real objects of Sieyes were to main- 

. Constitution 

tarn popular rule m appearance, and yet to of the year 

curb the excesses of popular license, and at 

once to create a strong government, and to guard against 



176 Maretigo. Luneville, Amiens. ch. x. 

the irregular tyranny of which he had seen such fright- 

. . ful examples. For this purpose, in strange 

tutions contrast with the ideas of not many years 

founded i r 1 • -l j • c 

bv it. before, his scheme preserved an image of 

popular rights, and declared that Sove- 
reignty belonged to the people ; but it confined the whole 
administration of the State, even in its lowest depart- 
ments, to certain lists of citizens, and it distributed the 
Legislative and Executive powers between a council of 
State and a Tribunate, charged respectively to propose 
and discuss-all measures, a Legislative Assembly the duty 
of which was to enact laws without the agitation of de- 
bates, a Senate to nominate to all great offices, and a 
Grand Elector and two Consuls to govern under all kinds 
of restrictions. By these means the inge- 
slly^r °^ nious designer imagined that he would re- 
concile democracy with stability, order, and 
political freedom ; but it is unnecessary to say that his 
pretty system found little favor in the sight of the ruler 
of France. Bonaparte allowed the limitations on popu- 
lar rights in the choice of functionaries to continue for a 
time ; and he approved of the silent Legislature and the 
divided duties of the Tribunate and the Council of State ; 
for such an arrangement, he clearly saw, weakened any 
influence these bodies could possess. But he insisted 
on curtailing the privileges of the Senate, and in remov- 
ing checks on the Executive power ; and he placed 
himself, with the title of First Consul, and with absolute 
control over the whole scheme of government, in the 
stead of the Grand Elector and his two 

Bonaparte 

First Consul dependents. The dictatorship of the First 
years!^ Consul was to last for ten years, and a 

second and third consul, mere shadowy 
names, were to veil the reality of a single ruler. 



i8oo. Marengo. Luneville. Amiens, 177 

In this way the despotism of one man, surrounded by 
merely nominal restraints, became definitely ^^. , 
established m France, and the supremacy potism is 
of Bonaparte was consecrated by law. The surrounded 
Constitution received the sanction of an en- ^^ merely 

nominal 

thusiastic popular vote, significant of the restraints. 
national instincts and character ; and before long Sieyes 
and his late brother Director gave way to two new con- 
suls, who, though able men, were merely the willing 
agents of power. The government of France, however, 
at this juncture was only a small part of the First Con- 
sul's task ; he had, if possible, to repair the disasters of 
war, and to roll back the Coalition from the frontiers. 
These cares had, of course, engaged his thoughts as 
soon as the reins of power had come into his hands ; 
and, supported by a strong national sentimient, and by 
able and skilful lieutenants, and employing the growing 
resources of the State with absolute authority and con- 
summate art, he soon reorganized the shattered armies 
and revived the military strength of France. 
One circumstance was of happy omen to zation^f^"'" 
him, for the Czar, after the defeat at Zu- ""^^ fr^^c"^ 

' ' armies. 

rich, had ordered Suwarrow to return home ; 
and thus the forces of the Allies were reduced by a large 
contingent of hardy warriors. The German Empire and 
England, however, remained in the field ; and while 
an army of considerable but inferior strength threatened 
Alsace from Western Bavaria, Austria had assembled a 
very powerful force to secure the conquests she had 
made in Italy, and having reduced the Italian fortresses 
still garrisoned by weak French detachments, to invade 
the borders of Dauphiny and Provence. In 
this state of affairs the First Consul formed the First 
a plan of operations which has been always 

N 



178 Marengo. Lu7teville. Amiens. ch. x. 

thought one of the most dazzling of his military concep- 
tions. The force of the enemy in Bavaria was not so 
great as it ought to have been, regard being had to the 
whole theatre of war ; and the great Austrian host on 
the western verge of Italy was dangerously exposed on 
this secondary frontier, to an attack from Switzerland, 
which projected, like a huge natural bastion, along its 
flanks and rear. Bonaparte, accordingly, arrayed a 
force superior to that in its front in Bavaria, which was 
to descend rapidly from the heads of the Rhine, and, 
under Moreau, to take the foe in reverse ; while he pre- 
pared secretly a second army, with which, concealing his 
design to the last moment, he resolved to cross the great 
Swiss Alps, and to fall on the Austrians and cut off 
their retreat. 

The cam- Operations began on both sides in the 

paign of spring of 1800 on the theatre of war. Leav- 

1800. . /-f 1 1 n . rr^ 

mg Ott to undertake the siege of Genoa, and 

covering his line of retreat with a large scattered force, 

Melas, the Austrian commander-in-chief in Italy, ad- 

^ , vanced to the Var and had soon taken 

Operations 1 .1 ■» 

of Melas in Nicc. Meanwhile, Moreau had set his 

^* ^' army in motion ; and though too timid to 

carry out the project of striking his enemy in the rear 

by crossing the Rhine at its heads at Schaffhausen, he 

^ , had nevertheless invaded Bavaria, forced 

and of . . 

Moreau in back his Weaker antagonist Kray, and, as 
had been agreed on, was able to send a 
considerable detachment across the St. Gothard, to co- 
operate with the First Consul. That great commander 
had in the interval drawn together gradually from all 
parts of France the troops intended for the decisive 
stroke ; and he screened the movement with such skill 
that the Austrians believed it was nothing more than 



i8oo. Marengo. Luneville, Amiens, 179 

the preparation of a levy of conscripts. By the middle 
of May 50,000 men, ready for the field, were on the 
Swiss frontier, and everything had been arranged with 
clear forethought for overcoming the great 
barrier before them. Sending a column by Consul 
the ordinary pass by Mont Cenis to deceive Alps^MaJ^ 
the enemy as long as possible, the First ^^~^9. 
Consul directed the mass of his army over 
the Great St. Bernard ; and from May 16 to May 19, the 
solitudes of the vast mountain tract echoed to the din 
and tumult of war as the French soldiery swept over its 
heights to reach the valley of the Po and the plains of 
Lombardy. A hill fort, for a time, stopped the daring 
invaders, but the obstacle was passed by an ingenious 
stratagem ; and before long Bonaparte, exulting in hope, 
was marching from the verge of Piedmont on Milan, 
having made a demonstration against Turin, in order to 
hide his real purpose. By June 2 the whole French 
army, joined by the reinforcement sent by 
Moreau, was in possession of the Lombard army 
capital, and threatened the line of its Miiaa, 
enemy's retreat, having successfully ac- J""^=^- 
complished the first part of the brilliant design of its 
great leader. 

While Bonaparte was thus descending from the Alps, 
the Austrian commander had been pressing forward the 
siege of Genoa and his operations on the Var. Mass6na, 
however, stubbornly held out in Genoa ; and Suchet had 
defended the defiles of Provence with a weak force with 
such marked skill that his adversary had made little 
progress. When first informed of the terrible apparition 
of a hostile army gathering upon his rear, Melas dis- 
believed what he thought impossible ; and when he 
could no longer discredit what he heard, the movements 



i8o Marengo. JLunevtlle. Amiens, ch. x. 

by Mont Cenis and against Turin, intended to perplex 
him, had made him hesitate. As soon, however, as the 
real design of the First Consul was fully revealed, the 
brave Austrian chief resolved to force his way to the 
Adige at any cost; and, directing Ott to 
backf raise the siege of Genoa, and leaving a sub- 

ordinate to hold Suchet in check, he began 
to draw his divided army together, in order to make a 
desperate attack on the audacious foe upon his line of 
retreat. Ott, however, delayed some days to receive the 
keys of Genoa, which fell after a defence memorable 
in the annals of war ; and, as the Austrian forces had 
been widely scattered, it was June 12 before fifty thou- 
sand men were assembled for an offensive movement 
round the well-known fortresses of Alessandria. Mean- 
while, the First Consul had broken up from Milan ; and 
whether ill-informed of his enemy's operations, or ap- 
prehensive that, after the fall of Genoa, Melas would 
escape by a march southwards, he had advanced from 
a strong position he had taken between the Ticino, the 
Adda, and the Po, and had crossed the Scrivia into the 
plains of Marengo, with forces disseminated far too 
widely. Mela.s boldly seized the opportunity 
Marengo, to cscape from the weakened meshes of the 

1800. ^^' ^^t thrown round him ; and attacked Bona- 

parte on the morning of June 14 with a vigor 
and energy which did him honor. The battle raged 
confusedly for several hours ; but the French had begun 
to give way and fly, when the arrival of an isolated divi- 
sion on the field, and the unexpected charge of a small 
body of horsemen, suddenly changed defeat into a bril- 
liant victory. The importance was then seen of the 
commanding position of Bonaparte on the rear of his 
be ; the Austrian army, its retreat cut off, was obliged 



i8oo. Marens:o, Limeville. Amiens, i8i 



".b 



to come to terms after a single reverse : and ^, ^ 

. The French 

within a few days an armistice was signed recover 
by which Italy to the Mincio was restored to ^ ^' 
the French, and the disasters of 1799 were effaced. 

This splendid success has been always considered one 
of the most wonderful of its author's achievements. Yet, 
though the daring passage of the Alps was a military 
combination of the highest order, carried out generally 
with the greatest skill, the movements of Bonaparte in 
this campaign hardly equalled those of 1796, and the 
march on Marengo gives proof of that over-confidence 
and sanguine ardor which were the chief defects in his 
genius for war. While Italy had been re- 
gained at one stroke, the campaign in Ger- Germany.^" '" 
many had progressed slowly ; and though 
Moreau was largely superior in force, he had met more 
than one check near Ulm, on the Danube. 
The stand, however, made ably by Kray, Moreau. 
could not lessen the effects of Marengo ; and Kray^°^ 
Austria, after that terrible reverse, endea- 
vored to negotiate with the dreaded conqueror. Bona- 
parte, however, following out a purpose which he had 
already made a maxim of policy, and resolved if possible 
to divide the Coalition, refused to treat with Austria 
jointly with England, except on conditions known to be 
futile ; and after a pause of a few weeks hostilities were 
resumed with increased energy. By this time, however, 
the French armies had acquired largely preponderating 
strength ; and while Brune advanced victoriously to the 
Adige — the First Consul had returned to the seat of gov- 
ernment — Moreau in Bavaria marched on the rivers 
which, descending from the Alps to the Danube, form 
one of the bulwarks of the Austrian Monarchy. He was 
attacked incautiously by the Archduke John — the Arch- 



i82 Marengo. Luneville. Ajniens. ch. x. 

duke Charles, who ought to have been in command, was 

in temporary disgrace at the Court — and soon afterwards 

_ . „ he won a great battle at Hohenlinden, be- 

BattleofHo- ° 

heniinden, De- twecn the Iser and the Inn, the success of 
er 3,100. ^^ French being complete and decisive, 
though the conduct of their chief has not escaped criti- 
cism. This last disaster proved overwhelming, and 
Austria and the States of the Empire were forced to 
^ ^ submit to the terms of Bonaparte. After a 

Treaty of . ^ 

Luneville, Feb- brief delay peace was made at Luneville in 
ruary 9, i 01. YobvudirY 1801 ; and the glorious provisions 
of Campo Formio were ratified and extended in the in- 
terests of France. The principle of the French " natu- 
ral boundaries " was confirmed again by a second cession 
of Belgium and the western bank of the Rhine ; and 
the young Republics created in Italy — they had remained 
_ , true to their allegiance to France — were, 

Great advan- ° 

tages gained by savc at Rome and Naples, set up again, and 
recognized by Austria, although the objects 
of the bitter aversion she naturally felt for what repre- 
sented revolution and defeat. The Grand Duke of Tus- 
cany, an Austrian prince, was in addition deprived of 
his duchy, to be conferred on an Infant of Spain, a 
Power now wholly dependent on France ; and the First 
Consul pursued the system of secularizing, as it is called, 
the great German Bishoprics, in order to satisfy the 
greed of Prussia, to bind her more closely to the French 
alliance, and effectually to divide Germany. The Pope, 
however, was recalled to Rome, as the First Consul had 
need of his support in a great measure already impend- 
ing ; and, at the intercession of Russia, Naples was 
spared, and hopes were held out to the dethroned King 
of Sardinia. In negotiating this treaty, which not only 
assured to France the coveted boundary of the Rhine, 



i8oo. Marengo. Luneville. Amiens. 183 

but made her dominant over half the Continent, Bona- 
parte had shown the art of the young General of 1796, 
and the same contempt of revolutionary _. 

• 1 -r. -I . 1 1 Dictatorial 

prmciples. But he had assumed a more toneofBona- 
dictatorial tone, and hardly a trace of the ^^^ ^' 
moderation remained of which he had given proof when 
his power was uncertain. The change was felt, and it 
was generally perceived by the representatives of the old 
Powers of Europe that the ambition and craft of the 
military genius who ruled France might be at least as 
dangerous as the propaganda of Republican liberty. 
England was now again left alone to contend against the 
State which had twice defeated Europe ; and many cir- 
cumstances concurred to make her wish to give up the 
struggle, at least for a time. Her ascendency on the sea 
had become as evident as that of her antagonist on land. 
She had swept the fleets of France from the ocean, and 
conquered most of the French and Dutch colonies ; and, 
in the existing state of the world, the rival nations could 
not find a theatre for a decisive encounter. Mr. Pitt, too, 
had retired from power ; the continuance of the war had 
become unpopular, and even the Tory majority in the 
two Houses felt that an interval of repose would be wel- 
come. Events hastened the consummation to which 
things had been of late tending. An Eng- 
lish force had landed in Egypt, and, re- AugSstiSoi. 
trieving years of military discredit, had 
compelled the veteran army of Bonaparte to capitulate 
after a gallant struggle, and Egypt had been definitely 
lost to France. On the other hand, the First Consul had 
combined a formidable league against England, headed 
by the maritime Powers of the North ; and though this 
alliance was quickly dissolved, it caused apprehension 
not lessened by the failure of Nelson to destroy a French 



1 84 Marengo. Luneville. Amiens. ch. x. 

flotilla off the coast of Boulogne. After long 
April iSo'i. negotiations peace was signed at Amiens, in 

March 1802, France retaining all her con- 
tinental conquests and recovering some of her colonies, 
England keeping Ceylon and Trinidad ; and though 
statesmen felt that it was only a truce, the two nations 
rejoiced that the sword had been sheathed. One article 

in the treaty, bitterly discussed, was soon to 
Amiens/ ^ become of unhappy importance. Malta had 
March 27, been wrested by our fleets from the French ; 

and it was stipulated that the great fortress 
should be restored to its original possessors, on the con- 
dition, however, perfectly understood, that France was 
not to make fresh annexations in Europe. 
Greatresuits jn this way the most dreaded enemy of 

obtained by _ •' •' 

the First Con- .France retired from a contest of nine years, 

sul. 

and the supremacy of her rival on the Con- 
tinent was confirmed. The Peace of Amiens was im- 
mediately followed by a general pacification of Europe ; 
and the ruler of France stood before the world encom- 
passed by a fresh halo of glory and renown. Within 
the space of a year and a half that wonderful man had 
raised France from what seemed hopeless prostration 
and anarchy, had given her order, allayed her troubles, 
revived her strength, and struck down her foes ; and he 
had consolidated her triumphs by a series of treaties 
which made her arbiter of the finest part of Europe. 
The prospect was magnificent, and appeared serene ; 
but would the warrior who had gathered in his hands 
the stormy forces of the Revolution, pause in the intoxi- 
cating career of victory ? Would not the confusion and 
change of Europe offer to his ambition a perilous field ; 
would not the animosities of defeated Powers cdfne into 
fierce collision with his imperious rule and the order of 



i8oi-2. The Consulate . Renewal of War. 185 

things which he wished to establish ; would not the des- 
potism he was inaugurating in France, though, perhaps, 
inevitable in her present state, accelerate the tendency 
to foreign conquest which she had displayed for several 
years ? 



CHAPTER XL 

THE CONSULATE. RENEWAL OF WAR. 

During the period which followed the , 

^ Internal Gov- 

Peace of Amiens,* the First Consul had ernment of the 
leisure to make great changes in the inter- '^^ °"^" " 
nal government of France, to carry out the policy of 

* M. Thiers, in the Histoire du Consulat et de I' Empire, has 
described in the minutest detail, and with a masterly hand, the 
internal Government and the foreign and domestic policy of Na- 
poleon. This work should be studied for its copious information ; 
but in peace as in war the brilliant author surrounds his ideal with 
deceptive splendor. M. Lanfrey, in his Histoire de Napoleon I., 
has said all that could be said on the other side, and has painted 
the vices and mischiefs of Napoleon's despotism, and the faults of 
the Emperor's character, with much skill and power. The Com- 
mentaries, and especially the Correspondence of Napoleon, show 
what he was as a ruler and administrator as well as a warrior, and 
the works of MM. Bignon and Fain may also be consulted. 
The correspondence of Lords Grenville, Wellesley, Sidmouth, and 
Castlereagh, of Mr. Pitt and Mr. Fox, and the Memoirs of Prince 
Hardenberg, show what Napoleon's regime appeared to English 
and Gerrnan statesmen ; and Alison's History, though disfigured 
by party views, contains a full account of the Consular and Im- 
perial system of Government. 



1 86 The Consulate, Renewal of War. ch. xi. 

reconstruction, and of moderating and reconciling the 
remains of factions begun after the i8th Brumaire, and 
at the same time to increase his own domination, and 
to weaken whatever seemed hostile to it. His measures 
of reform and pacification had already been followed 
by good results, but many of the institutions of the 
country he ruled, and its social frame in some of its 
parts, were shattered, distorted, and out .of joint, after 
the frightful shock of the Revolution ; and an oppor- 
tunity was afforded him to reconstitute the polity of 
France in several respects, to leave a permanent mark 
on it, and to influence powerfully the national life, in 
what he conceived the interests of the State, and in fur- 
therance certainly of his own objects. Bonaparte, as 
we have already said, in consequence of the antecedents 
of his career, and of the firm hold he preserved of power, 
was in many particulars fitted for this work ; his great 
ability gave him some qualifications for it, and what was 
more important, the circumstances of the time concurred 
. largely to serve his purpose. The Revolu- 

favorabie for tion had now permanently set free the soil, 

reconstructing , , , • -i • ^ • ^■ 

society in had removed mischievous restrictions on 

France. trade, had relieved Frenchmen of feudal 

shackles, had secured a general equality of rights more 
real than the fanciful Rights of Man, and had laid the 
foundations of a material prosperity which was to be- 
come equally brilliant and solid ; and terrible as its de- 
vastations had been, these blessings were great and 
were to prove lasting. But while in the highest places 
of government it had ended only in a long succession 
of weakness and oppression, for the present closed by a 
splendid but weighty despotism of the sword, it had also 
left considerable parts of the national orgaiftzation a 
mere chaos ; and order, tranquillity, and reform were 



1802-3. The Consulate. Renewal of War. 187 

needed in the administrative system, and the ecclesias- 
tical and even social arrangements of the long disturbed 
and agitated country. At the same time the gradual 
subsidence of past animosities had grown more evident ; 
the desire for repose had become supreme in the ex- 
tinction of political hopes and passions ; the one thought 
of the numerous classes which had gained advantage 
from the Revolution was to disregard its ideals and to 
reap its benefits under a regimen of settled authority 
and law ; except a few royalists and extreme anarchists, 
all parties accepted facts as they were ; and the Nation, 
entranced by the spell of glory, and grateful also for 
splendid services, looked up to Bonaparte with unthink- 
ing confidence. A great field lay open to the First Con- 
sul, and the soil was ready for his strong hands to turn. 

The attention of Bonaparte was first 
directed to the whole internal administra- t^g State.^ 
tion of the State. The reforms effected 
in the finances had restored credit and assured the 
revenue ; and the causes were not in operation yet 
which in this respect were to lead alike to illusory pros- 
perity and real exhaustion. But almost everywhere else, 
disorder prevailed ; and if much that the First Consul 
did has been censured by able thinkers, many of his 
creations have obtained the sanction of national ap- 
proval and have become permanent. One of his chief 
cares was to accomplish a change in the general judicial 
system of France, which' the National Assembly had, 
with strange unwisdom, exposed to the evils of popular 
election, and which now required a thorough amend- 
ment. The appointment of judges was pro- 
perly secured, as in England, to the Execu- system. '^'^ 
tive governmetit ; justice was brought nearer 
home to all Frenchmen by increasing the number of in- 



1 88 The Consulate. Renewal of War. ch. xi. 

ferior judges ; and uniformity in the distribution of rights 
was obtained by establishing a series of appellate tri- 
bunals, in some degree resembling the old Parliaments, 
but with a better and modern procedure. This im- 
portant reform, in which we again see the ancient Mon- 
archy imitated and improved, was certainly marred by 
the institution of special courts for political offences ; 
but it must be recollected that a system of this kind had 
at all times existed in France, and never was so fear- 
fully abused as during the period of the Revolution. 
^L ^ J The next great work of the First Consul 

1 he Lode. • . 

was to give the Nation the one general Code 
which the National Assembly had projected, and the 
Convention had endeavored to begin; and in a few 
months, under his energetic impulse, the medley of 
usages and written observances, confused, uncertain, 
and huge in bulk, which had formed the canon of rights 
in France, were fused into a harmonious body of laws, 
the real merit of which is seen by their extension over a 
great part of Europe, though their genius is in many re- 
spects despotic. This noble achievement was of course, 
/in the main, the task of professional lawyers ; but Bona- 
parte may claim to have been its chief author, and in 
some places even the text of the Code bears the mark 
of his keen and powerful intellect. Perhaps, however, 

the most notable of the internal changes 
oHocTl powers, ^lade at this time was the Revolution which 

the First Consul wrought in the arrange- 
ment of local powers in the State, and the relations of 
these with the supreme government. The Convention 
had, as we have seen, limited the extravagant authority 
given by the National Assembly to local bodies which 
had proved so mischievous in the Revolution, and 
Bonaparte carried to the furthest extent the principle of 



1802-3. The Consulate. Renewal of War, 189 

restriction and compression. The powers of the pro- 
vincial and municipal Assemblies were almost every- 
where wholly suppressed ; the influence of the Com- 
munes, including that of Paris, already curtailed, was 
reduced to nothingness ; the National Guards were made 
simply a submissive appendage of the Army ; and 
France in local affairs was practically ruled by a bureau- 
cracy of sub-prefects and prefects, in close 
dependence on the central government, sub-prefect 
and in many respects with a strong resem- 
blance to the royal intendants of the Bourbon Mon- 
archy. * 

The next great measure of the First Con- ^he Concor- 
sul was the renewal, under altered conditions, *^^*- 
of that alliance between the State and the Church, which 
had existed in France since the dark ages. He had, as 
we have said, on his advent to power, put an end to the 
persecution of the clergy ; but after the events of past 
years, confusion prevailed in all parts of the Church, 
and its relations with the people and the government 
alike were jarring, irregular, and ill-defined. A bitter 
feud divided the nonjuring priesthood from those who 
had taken the oath of 1790-91, and communicated itself 
to their flocks everywhere ; and as the great majority 
of the bishops were emigres, and many of their Sees had 
become vacant, whole districts were without the episco- 
pal rule which is an essential part of Roman Catholic 
discipline. Besides, France had been under a kind of 
interdict since the property of the Church had been 
swept away, and the position of its ministers changed by 
the Legislation of the National Assembly ; and the open 
-disfavor of the Holy See had added to ecclesiastical dis- 
orders, been a source of real weakness to the State, and 
shocked the consciences of millions of Frenchmen. In 



xpo The Consulate. Renewal of War. ch. xi. 

this state of things the First Consul, after long negotia- 
tions with the Papal Court, at present really well-inclined 
to him, obtained what was called a Concordat with 
Rome, the first of many arrangements of the kind, 
which in some measure at least reconciled the ecclesias- 
tical and civil powers in France, allayed many of the 
troubles of the Church, and at once bound it up with the 
new order of affairs and placed it under the control of 
the government. By this famous compromise, complete 
freedom to all sects was permanently assured ; the con- 
fiscations of the Church lands were confirmed ; the 
number of Sees in France was greatly reduced, and 
their occupants, with the whole body of clergy, were 
made simply pensioners of the State ; and the supreme 
authority of the civil ruler in ecclesiastical matters was 
solemnly asserted. But on the other hand the Catholic 
religion was declared that of the Nation as a whole, its 
organization was upheld by law, and its teachers given 
a recognized rank ; and if the Church lost finally its 
ancient pretensions, and was associated with a Revolu- 
tionary State, its internal condition was rendered secure 
by the support and favor accorded to it, and the strife 
within it was greatly lessened by the complete equality 
with which its Ministers, whatever their antecedents, 
were always treated. The re-establishment of the 
Church in France, and its restoration to a place in the 
State, were celebrated by religious ceremonies at which 
Bonaparte assisted in person ; and — strange spectacle 
in that age of wonders — the aisles of Notre Dame, where 
a few years before the Goddess of Reason, in the midst 
of Revolutionary worshippers, held her orgies, echoed 
once more to the sacred services of the most mystic 
form of the Christian faith at the bidding of a revolu- 
tionary soldier. 



1802-3. The Consulate, Renewal of War, 191 

It may be doubted whether the Concordat i^s effects, 
has ultimately advanced religion in France, while it has 
placed the Church and all spiritual affairs in complete 
subjection to the secular arm. It tended, however, to 
restore order, to allay discord, and to promote peace ; 
and if it enlarged the influence of the new ruler, it is too 
much to say that he had no other motive. The Concor- 
dat was followed by a scheme of public in- 
struction which also extended the power of tion. 
the government over the Nation by putting 
intellect under 4;he control of the State ; but here also it 
is unfair to assert that this was the sole object of the 
First Consul. The general effect of the va- ^ 

" , . General re- 

rious measures of which we have faintly suits of these 
traced the outline was to improve extreme- 
ly the administration of affairs, to diffuse tranquillity, 
and upon the whole to contribute to the national wel- 
fare ; and if some of these reforms, especially the return 
to centralization in local government, have had evil re- 
sults of their own, and if they certainly made despotism 
more wide-spread and universally felt, they have almost 
all survived to this day, and have satisfied the wants of 
the great body of Frenchmen. The First Consul, how- 
ever, took other means to consolidate his 
sway which we must briefly notice. His armyf^^ 
authority rested ultimately of course on the 
instrument by which he had attained power, and he not 
only improved the discipline and organization of the 
French Army, but in a great measure transformed its 
spirit, overcame the jealousies of its chiefs which had 
made themselves more than ever apparent, and con- 
verted into enthusiastic devotion to himself its National 
and Revolutionary instincts. But like all soldiers who 
have displayed capacity as rulers for political affairs, he 



192 The Considaie. Renewal of War, ch. xi. 

concealed the omnipotence of the sword in the State, 
and he endeavored to obtain support for his government 
from the elements of civil life in the Nation by associa- 
ting it with a great mass of interests created 
newaristo- by, and dependent on, himself. For this 
cracy. purpose, while he generally maintained the 

equality of Frenchmen before the law, he gradually 
formed out of the official classes, which he multiplied in 
every conceivable way, an aristocracy of a new type ; 
and he tried by every means in his power to amalga- 
mate it with whatever remained of the aristocracy which 
the Revolution had spared. To accomplish this object 
he introduced again all kinds of distinctions in social 
The Legion of life — the Lcgion of Honor was the most re- 
Somfon ^t markable — and at last ventured on restoring 
Titles. titles ; and by these means he no doubt 

strengthened the attachment to himself of the upper 
orders of Frenchmen who had risen to influence through 
the Revolution, and even allied them to some extent 
with the thinned relics of the old Noblesse ; though this 
new patriciate, as has always happened in similar cases, 
was a poor creation, unstable, untrustworthy, and little 
respected. Before long he effected another great change, 
which indicated whither events were tending. The 
Consulate for ten years became one for life ; 
made Consul the authority of the Senate, composed of the 
for le. creatures of the new ruler, was at once 

augmented and made more to depend on his will ; and 
while the restrictions on the popular voice invented by 
Siey^s were nominally lessened, the Tribunate which 
had offered a show of opposition on several occasions to 
the autocrat in power, was reduced in numbers, care- 
fuilly weeded, and practically merged in the mute 
Legislative Body. This "reform of the constitution " 



1802-3. The Consulate. Renewal of War. 193 

of the year VIII., which made Caesarian ,, ,.^ 

. Modification 

despotism perfect, was, as before, sane- in a despotic 

tioned by a general vote of an overwhelm- Constitution' of 

ing majority of Frenchmen. ^^^ ^^'^ ^^^^• 

By these means the government of Bona- 
parte became essentially the domination of senSlnce ^f' 
one man, well ordered, spreading: itself ^^^ "^^ ^T'' 

' » r & "-*» ernmenttothat 

everywhere, gathering to itself all the forces of the Monar- 
in the State, shaping and controlling the ^ ^' 
national life, and surrounded by a gradation of powers 
and a set of influences which gave it a support, A con- 
siderable part of the new mechanism of the State had 
much in common with the ancient system which the 
National Assembly had tried to destroy for ever ; but 
though a certain resernblance existed, the rule* of Bona- 
parte, in most essential points, differed widely from that 
of the Bourbon Monarchy ; for if it was more despotic 
and sometimes oppressive, it was more national, and on 
the whole just. Its great and fatal evils of 

1 ■ 1 /• t . -,.■■, Its evils. 

course were that it left everything to the will 
of one man, that it was wholly inconsistent with any- 
thing like liberty, that it more or less weakened the na- 
tional energies, even when apparently most beneficent ; 
that it was, at best, attended with precarious good, and 
might issue in grievous mischiefs ; that, in a word, even 
in its most brilliant form, it was despotism with all the 
resulting perils. The Dictatorship, however, 
of the First Consul, vicious though it was as 
a scheme of government and destined to end in terrible 
misfortune, had nevertheless the real excellences that it 
secured internal quiet to the State and gave France a 
variety of institutions which have stood the infallible test 
of time, and that it alike protected the order of things 
which had grown up under the Revolution, and recon- 
O 



194 The Consulate. Renewal of War. ch. xi. 

ciled it in some degree with the past ; and it is for this, 

among other reasons, that it remains dear to the memory 

T?r. . , . of Frenchmen. As the administration of 

Wise Admin- 11 i • 

istration of the Bonaparte at home was generally at this 
period moderate, the benefits that followed 
were almost unmixed. He, indeed, showed himself im- 
placably severe to the remaining dregs of the Jacobin 
faction ; and more than once treated with unsparing 
tyranny those whom he called the " men of the Septem- 
ber massacres." But he went on steadily with the aus- 
picious work of reconciling and moderating parties ; and 
he finally closed the list of the emigres, and admitted 
numbers of the exiles into the service of the State. At 
the same time the noble system of public works which 
have illustrated his era was set on foot ; the canals and 
roads which had been the pride of the ancient Monarchy, 
and for many years had been in a state of decay, were 
restored ; and new towns springing up in La Vendee, the 
capital adorned with magnificent buildings, and the Alps 
spanned by vast military lines, attested the energy of the 
chief to whom France had committed her fate. 

Meanwhile Bonaparte already wearing, as 
the ^movement ^^ was Said, " the shadow of a kingly crown," 
S-chy^^ ^°"" promoted carefully, by indirect means, the 
domination he had directly established, and 
hastened the movement towards monarchy which had 
been visible even before his time. He abolished the 
ceremonies in which the Republic commemorated the 
execution of Louis XVI., and caused the remains of 
Turenne — the great hero warrior of the most glorious 
days of Louis XIV., which even Jacobin frenzy had 
spared, though during the excesses of the Reign of Ter- 
ror it had desecrated the rest of the Bourbon kings — to 
be transported solemnly to the Invalides, and buried with 



1802-3. The Consulate. Renewal of War. 195 

extraordinary poiijp. He had already taken up his abode 
at the Tuileries, and effaced the marks which revolution- 
ary passion or republican frenzy had left on the spot ; 
and he held what really was a Court, with its accessories 
of etiquette and splendor, in that seat of fallen yet not 
forgotten royalty. At the same time he adopted a regal 
style in his correspondence with foreign Powers ; and 
though in his relations with the Bodies of the State he 
preserved forms of simple equality, and spoke and bore 
himself as a private citizen, he always appeared in Paris 
with a magnificent retinue, and flattered the populace 
with the display of grandeur. He also encouraged in 
every way the luxury and taste of the Bourbon days, and 
spoke with contempt to those in his confidence of the 
savageness of revolutionary manners and of the absurd- 
ity of republican ways ; and in his serious moments he 
would often dwell on the instability of the institutions of 
France, on the necessity of settled power in an old State, 
on the evil effects of the philosophic theories — the ideology 
he scornfully called them — which had swayed the minds 
of men a few years previously. Nor were the tendencies 
of which he set an example less clearly apparent in the 
tone of general opinion, practice, and sentiment. France 
teemed with addresses shedding incense on "the new 
Saviour of social order ;" and the Press, lately so anarchic 
and wild, but now controlled by a watchful police, 
poured forth homage in floods to greet the ruler who had 
" closed the terrible age of Revolution." In ^, . 

° _ , Change of 

the same way the mimicry of Republican manners in 
tastes which had been the mode of a short 
time before disappeared in the salons of the capital ; the 
cant of classical liberty was heard no more ; ladies put 
off the Ionic costume of the Aspasias and Phrynes, of 
Greek times ; and military brilliancy, costly liveries, and 



196 The Consulate. Renewal of War. ch. xr. 

the graces, the finery, and the frivolity of Versailles, 
showed themselves again in the new masquerade in which 
the high life of Paris and France figured. * The First 
Consul had literally become the "mould of form" for 
nine-tenths of Frenchmen, and all France yielded to the 
spell of his influence. 
■c. • ^ ,. While Bonaparte had been thus extending 

roreign Policy ^ ^ ° 

of the First his sway, and reorganizing and transform- 
ing France, he had not been less active 
and stirring abroad. In his foreign relations at this 
period he pursued the policy of craft and interest incon- 
sistent with the ideas of 1789, which had distinguished 
his earliest efforts, and he displayed an imperious will 
and grasping ambition; but if he gave proof of that 
lust for power and domination which was to end in ruin, 
it should be recollected that the circumstances of the 
time, and even the conduct of some foreign Powers, con- 
tributed to place him in the position he assumed. As 
if to show his contempt of Republican dreams, he made 
the Infant of Spain, whom he had chosen for the pur- 
pose. King of the ceded Grand Duchy of Tuscany ; 
and in this manner he riveted a yoke already becoming 
difficult to bear, on the abject necks of the Spanish 
Bourbons. At the same time he annexed 
amburon.^" Piedmont to France, on the plea that the 
King had given up the throne ; and though he checked 
revolutionary ideas in Italy, he made the Pope and King 
of Naples feel that they held their possessions at his 
will and pleasure. Meanwhile he increased the hold of 
France on her new conquests and dependent Republics; 
and, as might have been expected, he fashioned the off- 
spring to the submission to himself which the parent 
displayed. As President he ruled the Cisalpine Repub- 
lic, considerably enlarged by the treaty of Luneville, 



1802-3. The Consulate. Renewal of War. 197 

and given the general name of the Italian nation ; he 
managed Holland through a Constitution on the model 
of that existing in France, and though he left Switzer- 
land nominally free, he practically controlled it as a 
French Province. The most remarkable ^ 

trench inter- 

advance in his po^er, however, arose from vention in 
his intervention in Germany, due mainly ^^^^^y- 
to the quarrels of German potentates. The seculariza- 
tion of the Bishoprics, which had been a principle of the 
Peace of Luneville, led to angry contentions between 
the German Courts, each eager for a greater share of 
the spoil ; and Austria and Prussia made such exorbitant 
demands that the Sovereigns of the lesser States ap- 
plied to the powerful ruler of France for aid. The First 
Consul gladly became a mediator, and secured a con- 
siderable increase of territory to Bavaria, Baden, and 
Wiirtemberg, while, to the extreme satisfaction of Prus- 
sian statesmen, he still further enlarged the bounds of 
Prussia with the view of strengthening her again§t Aus- 
tria, thus following traditional French policy which he 
had made in a special way his own. In this manner the 
influence of France, great in Germany since the day of 
Richelieu, was increased in an extraordinary degree ; 
but if the policy of Bonaparte was hard and calculating, 
and Germans learned to lament the results, they might 
bear in mind who called in a protector when they in- 
dulge in homilies on French aggression. 

In this way, in the midst of apparent 
peace, the domination of France was ex- sion^fVreifch 

tended, and her ruler became the undis- power and in- 
fluence. 

puted arbiter of Europe from the Baltic to 
the Mediterranean. It was impossible but that the 
growth of this power should vex and alarm the only 
State which had as yet contended successfully with 



198 The Consulate. Renewal of War. ch. xi. 

France ; and English statesmen, who had perceived 
from the first that the peace of Amiens could not last 
long, began to apprehend that war was near. This was 
not the case, it was universally felt, of a Republic weak 
and distracted at home, though strong in its arms and 
ideas abroad, the existence of which was always pre- 
carious ; it was that of a gigantic Despotism, directed 
and swayed by commanding genius, and all-powerful in 
France as well as in Europe ; and Whigs and Tories 
equally agreed that the present state of the Continent 
was a danger to England. In this condition of feeling 
causes of dissension arose quickly between the two 
Powers: English politicians not unjustly complained 
of the enormous extension of French power 

Disputes with , . ^ , -n t 1 1 

England. and mflucnce, and Bonaparte retaliated by 

March to May, denouncing the asylum given to conspira- 
tors against his rule in England, and the 
hostility of the English Press, of which the freedom 
shocked his despotic instincts. Meanwhile, on the 
ground of the virtual infraction of the treaty of Amiens 
by French ambition, Malta was not ceded at the time 
arranged ; and recriminations on this subject ended in 
a scene of violence in which the First Consul, breaking 
out into a real or feigned passion, spoke menacingly to 
our envoy in Paris. The publication of a French State 
paper, revealing a design of regaining Egypt, increased 
the quickening elements of discord, and a kind of 
challenge which Bonaparte, with his usual scorn of popu- 
lar forces, threw out generally to the English Nation, 
aroused an indignation impossible to allay, 
war wi^hEn°- After fruitless negotiations touching Malta, 
land May 18, ^hich, though a principal occasion of the 
strife, had become merely an incident in it, 
war was renewed between the two countries ; and in 



1803-4- 'Ihe Empire to Tilsit. 199 

May, 1803, the great Powers of the West had again 
closed in mortal encounter. It is vain to measure the 
provocation on either side, though in view of the recent 
aggrandizement of France, the retention of Malta was 
not contrary to the real spirit of the treaty of Amiens, 
and though in defying the free opinion of England, the 
First Consul made a signal mistake which illustrates one 
of his chief defects as a politician. But if the war was, 
perhaps, inevitable— for the preponderance of France 
was perilous in the extreme to England, and this justi- 
fies the acts of our statesmen — the renewal of the con- 
test was to t)e deplored. It was to end in frightful mis- 
fortune to France, after raising her to the summit of 
glory ; it was to give England imperishable renown, 
indeed, and yet to expose her to terrible dangers, to 
retard her social progress for years, and to involve her 
in a system of politics with which her people could have 
no sympathy. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE EMPIRE TO TILSIT. 

The new war between England and France ^, _,, 
was embittered by passion, and a death- Consul plans 
struggle from the first. The First Consul En|fa"d. 
now took up with ardor the idea of invading our shores, 
which he had considered premature a few years before ; 
and he applied for months his commanding intellect to 
preparing the means of a formidable descent. Times 
had changed since he had advised the Directory to 
pause, and not to run the risk of the enterprise ; he had 



20O The Empire to Tihit. ch. xii. 

absolute control of the naval resources of France, Hol- 
land, and Italy, largely increased, with those of Spain 
soon to be added to them ; his military forces over- 
awed Europe, and nothing seemed too difficult for the 
daring warrior who had hardly met a check in his 
career of triumphs. Within a short time an immense 
flotilla, comprising more than two thousand boats, and 
light vessels with powerful guns, had been constructed 
along the seaboard extending from La Rochelle to An- 
twerp ; and by degrees this menacing array was drawn 
together to the coast of Picardy, and, under the protec- 
tion of miles of batteries, was collected in the narrowest 
part 6f the Channel, within sight of the white cliffs of 
Th fl "ii Dover. Meanwhile troops had been marched 

and camp of in thousands from all parts of the dominions 

of France ; and before long the country 
from Dunkirk to Staples bristled with the camps of the 
warlike masses which had been marshalled for the great 
expedition. Boulogne, and the small adjoining ports, 
were chosen as the places of embarkation ; and the 
arrangements of Bonaparte were so well laid that his 
whole army, with its vast material, could be moved on 
board in a few hours, and the flotilla could be made 
ready for sea within the space of a single tide. It was 
not the purpose, however, of this great commander to 
expose this armament, formidable as it appeared, with- 
out ample protection, to the English fleets ; and to ac- 
complish this object he matured designs which have 

always ranked among his ablest projects. 
covering the He Calculated that the English Admiralty, 
la^rge^fleeUn imagining that the descent would be tried 
the Channel, ^jth ^^ powerfully armed flotilla alone, 
would guard the Channel chiefly with small vessels ; and 
if so, it might become feasible, notwithstanding the naval 



i8o4. The Empire to lilsit. 201 

strength of England, to bring a great fleet into the narrow- 
seas, and under its cover, at the decisive point, to effect 
in safety the dangerous passage. For this purpose he 
planned a variety of schemes to draw away our squad- 
rons from the waters of Europe, and to concentrate an 
armada of fifty sail of the line in the straits that divide 
the two countries ; and though his combinations ulti- 
mately failed, they were more nearly successful than is 
commonly supposed. 

While Bonaparte was thus straining every 
nerve to master what he called "the wet Conspiracy 

of the emt- 

ditch" of the Channel, a lamentable inci- ^rcs against 
dent occurred which has left a deep stain consul, 
on his public life, and was ultimately at- 
tended with eventful results. The First Consul had, we 
have seen, shown generous clemency to the emigres, and 
most of them had returned to France, and even largely 
entered his service. A certain number, however, had 
remained in exile ; and a part of these men, associated 
with one or two chiefs of the late western insurgents, had 
joined in conspiring against the ruler whose power it 
was hopeless to shake openly. As far back as 1801 an 
attempt had been made against the life of Bonaparte, 
by firing what was called an infernal machine, as he was 
proceeding to the opera ; and this was undoubtedly a 
royalist plot, though attributed at first by its intended 
victim to the survivors of the anarchist faction. These 
machinations, which had never ceased, became more 
active when the war again broke out, and a project to 
assassinate the First Consul and to destroy his govern- 
ment was formed in England, though it is unnecessary 
to notice the monstrous charge that English statesmen 
connived at it. The Count of Artois, to his lasting dis- 
credit, was cognizant of this criminal purpose, and it is 



202 The Empire to Tilsit. CH. xii. 

said, even took part in it ; and though the leaders were 
men who had fought in the ranks of the Breton royahsts, 
Pichegru, who had been exiled since Fructidor i8, was 
an accomplice to a certain extent ; and Moreau, who 
had become hostile to Bonaparte, unwisely listened to 
the tempter's voice, though innocent of any murderous 
intent. The heads of the conspiracy, with Pichegru and 
Moreau, were arrested in Paris before they could effect 
their purpose ; and one of the prisoners having deposed 
that a Bourbon prince was to join in the enterprise, the 
attention of Bonaparte was unhappily turned to the Duke 
of Enghien, a scion of the race, whose presence on the 
borders of the Black Forest had, with other circum- 
stances, aroused suspicion. The unfortunate prince was 
suddenly arrested, though on German terri- 
^f^the^Duke ^ory, and hurried to Paris ; and though 

of Enghien, guiltless of all real crime, was shot by the sen- 
March 21 'J 

1804. ' tence of a military commission, after a trial 

which does not deserve the name. Some of 
the conspirators were afterwards justly executed ; and 
the tragedy was closed by the banishment of Moreau, 
and by the suicide of Pichegru* in his place of confine- 
ment. 

The death of the Duke of Enghien was a crime which 
shows what despotism could effect in France, though 
largely entitled to national gratitude, and seldom marked 
by mere vulgar cruelty. It is, however, unfair to regard 
this act as an assassination of the worst kind, for there were 
grounds to suspect the Bourbon princes ; allowance must 
be made for that dread of murder which has unhinged 
even the most powerful intellects ; and Bonaparte had a 

* There seem to be no grounds for the charge that Pichegru was 
strangled in prison by the order of the First Consul. 



1804. The Empire to Tilsit. 203 

right to make an example of the emigres^ who wickedly 
sought his life, though he unfortunately selected an in- 
nocent victim. The deed, moreover, was less culpable 
than the slaughter of the French envoys at Rastadt ; 
and if it can be only at best palliated, it is right to bear 
in mind that the age had acquired a character of vio- 
lence and angry passion. The immediate effect of this 
tragic event was to hasten the movement towards Mo- 
narchy to which everything had been inclining. The 
possibility of the sudden death of Bonaparte, 
which had been brought before the public This event 

hastens the 

mmd, caused men to hope that the evil re- movement 
suits of his disappearance would be at least Monarchy. 
lessened if he were at once placed on an 
hereditary throne ; and the sentiments of the Nation 
made it eager to surround its ruler with the pomp of 
sovereignty. The First Consul naturally flattered these 
ideas, but whether from a desire to draw a distinction 
between the position of the Bourbons and his own, or 
from a wish for new and peculiar greatness, he refused 
to accept the title of King, At last he selected the 
ancient dignity which had come down from the time of 
Charlemagne ; and amidst enthusiastic de- 
monstrations of joy he was proclaimed Consu/ pro- 
Emperor of the French in May 1804, design- claimed 

^ ./ -T' o Emperor of 

mg himself Napoleon, by his Christian the French, 
name, according to the usage of Crowned 180^ ^ ' 
Heads. The Empire, limited to his descen- 
dants, was upheld by dignitaries, in part borrowed from 
the Germanic model, and in part from that established 
by the ancient Kings of France ; and its military charac- 
ter was fitly expressed by the appointment of sixteen 
marshals chosen from among the principal chiefs of the 
RepubHcan armies. At the same time fresh changes 



204 The Empire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

were made in the shadowy institutions of the work of 
Sieyes ; and the senate was enlarged, while the popular 
tribunate was still further weakened, and at last sup- 
pressed. More important, certainly, than this mere 
shifting of the apparatus of despotic power, was the 
inauguration of the imperial Court, in which the aristoc- 
racy of the new era vied with survivors of the old noblesse, 
in flattery, vanity, and ostentation. 
Coroiiation of On December 2, Paris flocked to witness 

JNapoleon ' 

Dec. 2,1804. the spectacle of the Coronation. In grati- 
tude to the restorer of the faith in France, the Pope had 
come from Rome to hallow the pageant, and had departed 
from the usage which his predecessors had imposed on 
the haughtiest of the German Emperors. The Pontiff, 
attended by a procession, in which mitres and crosses 
were strangely mixed with the sabres and banners of 
the imperial guard, passed along the Seine to the an- 
cient Cathedral, raised centuries before by the good St. 
Louis, and still towering in lofty state above the wrecks 
of the revolutionary tempest. The walls of Notre Dame 
were hung with tapestry rich with the golden bees of the 
new Sovereign ; the dim light, which showed nave and 
aisle, fell on the ranks of the Bodies of the State, of the 
representatives of foreign Powers, of deputations from 
the chief towns of the Empire, all arrayed in costly and 
orderly pomp ; and, as the sacred procession entered, 
choir and organ pealed forth a solemn chant, and the 
prelates of the renovated Church of France knelt reve- 
rently to implore the apostolic blessing. Meanwhile 
Napoleon had left the Tuileries, escorted by the new 
great officers of State, and with the company of his 
marshals by his side ; and as he moved slowly along 
the ways which had seen all that was worst in the Reign 
of Terror, cheers burst exultingly from the thronging 



1804. The Empire to Tilsit 205 

crowds, hailing a master as they had hailed liberty. On 
the arrival of the Emperor the assemblage in the Church 
stood up to greet him, amidst the swell of sacred music 
and the blare of trumpets ; and it was with sentiments 
of mingled curiosity and awe that the spectators beheld 
the conquering soldier, wearing the golden laurel of the 
Caesars on his brow, do homage to the successor of the 
Galilean fisherman. The ceremony now began, and 
Pius VII. poured the mystic oil on the kneehng Sove- 
reign, and invested him with the lesser emblems of 
power, the consecrated Sword, and imperial Sceptre ; 
but as he was about to complete the rite, Napoleon took 
the Crown from the hand of the Pontiff, and, with a 
significant gesture, placed it on his head himself, in wit- 
ness of the supremacy of the State, and of his own pa- 
ramount and chief authority. The Emperor then 
ascended a throne, encircled by a following in which 
great names of the Bourbon Monarchy stood by the 
side of republican soldiers and politicians ; and as the 
hymn arose which had fallen on the ear of Charlemagne 
when saluted Emperor of the West, the acclamations 
that echoed from Notre Dame were caught up by the 
vast crowds outside, and the roar of artillery joined in 
concert. The satirist may ridicule whatever was incon- 
gruous or out of date in the spectacle, but History notes 
its more suggestive features — ^how the Revolution, in 
Napoleon's hands, arrayed itself in the forms of the 
Past, did external reverence at least to the symbols of 
majesty, order, and antique tradition, and embodied it- 
self, so to speak, in the type of contented servitude and 
military despotism. 

Before long, however, pageants of this . 

kind gave way to the sterner scenes of war against 
renewed over the greater part of the Con- 



2o6 The Empire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

tinent. The execution of the Duke of Enghien, and 
the violation of the territory of a German State, had 
given natural offence to the Powers of Europe ; and 
fresh causes of irritation arose, when, by a transforma- 
tion expressive of his power. Napoleon converted the 
Italian Republic into a vassal Monarchy ruled by him- 
self, and incorporated Genoa into the French Empire. 
Mr. Pitt, too, had returned to office ; and his efforts, in 
the increasing peril of England, to reunite a confederacy 
against her foe, soon shaped alarm into definite purpose, 
and revived the Coalition ever ready to combine. By 
the summer of 1805 England, Austria, Russia, Sweden, 
and Naples, had entered into a close alliance ; and it 
was hoped that even Prussia would join the league, as 
the overwhelming preponderance of France had begun 
to affect the policy of that Power, and to make it appre- 
hensive for its own safety. Four lines of invasion were 
„, , , marked out by those who directed the Allied 

Plan of the at- ^ 

tack of the councils ; the first by the North German 
seaboard, the second up the valley of the 
Danube, the third from the Adige into Italy, and the 
fourth along the Neapolitan coast ; but the second at- 
tack only was to be made in force ; and the Austrians 
and Russians who were to attempt it were separated 
from each other by the immense distance between Ba- 
varia and the Galician frontier. These faulty 

Campaign of ,. . . , , / 

1805. dispositions were not lost on the great sol- 

dier who had so often triumphed over disunited and 
ill-led enemies ; and Napoleon prepared to defeat the 
Napoleon Allies by operations worthy of his genius for 

logne. ami War. Comparatively neglecting the subor- 
surrounds and dinate attacks, he resolved to meet the se- 

captures an 

. Austrian army cond in irresistible strength, and to crush 
19, 1805. ' the Austrians before the Russians could 



1805. The Empire to Tilsit, 207 

aid them ; and as soon as he had ascertained that 
his lingering fleets could not reach the Channel to 
cover the descent, he broke up with his whole army 
from Boulogne, and marched with extraordinary speed 
to the Rhine, while powerful detachments from Holland 
and Hanover descended on the Maine to join in the 
movement. By the second week of October these con- 
verging masses, directed with admirable precision and 
skill, had gathered on the rear of the Austrian army, 
which had been imprudently advanced on Ulm ; and 
within a few days an iron net was thrown round the 
doomed and baffled host, and it was forced to surrender 
with Mack its chief. The whole vanguard of the Allied 
armies had been thus annihilated by a simple ma- 
noeuvre resembling that which had destroyed Melas ; 
and Europe never witnessed such a scene again until 
it was reproduced in our own days by the capitulations 
of Metz and Sedan. 

This wonderful success was soon, how- 
ever, to be chequered by a tremendous Trafigl?^ 
disaster on the element on which all the ^"^ ^^' , 

struction of 

efforts of France were destined only to end the French 
in failure. We have referred to the com- ish fleets, 
binations by which Napoleon endeavored 1805/'' 
to collect a fleet of overwhelming force in 
the Channel ; and these became in the highest degree 
formidable, when, in the autumn of 1804, Spain placed 
her naval forces in his hands. In the spring of the 
succeeding year a large French squadron set sail from 
Toulon, and, rallying a Spanish squadron at Cadiz, ar- 
rived safely in the West Indian seas, its object being to 
attract Nelson from European or English waters, and 
then, joined by a squadron from Brest, to make as 
quickly as possible its way to Boulogne, and so cover 



2o8 7he Empire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

the projected descent. The first part of the scheme 
completely succeeded ; Nelson was led away in a ficti- 
tious chase ; the French Admiral Villeneuve left the 
West Indies with a long start over his dreaded rival ; 
and though he was not met by the Brest fleet, he could 
have hardly been stopped had he made directly for the 
Channel, which, as Napoleon calculated, was but ill- 
guarded. But Villeneuve was timid, and inclined south- 
ward ; a light vessel detached by Nelson, with admirable 
forethought, gave the alarm; an indecisive action, off 
the coast of Spain, induced the Frenchman to bear up 
for Ferrol ; and though he had still not a few chances 
of success, for he had been strengtliened by another 
squadron, he shrunk from his foes, and put into Cadiz. 
Within a few weeks his whole fleet was destroyed in the' 
greatest naval battle of modern times ; and this crushing 
victory, though dearly bought by the death of the great- 
est of English seamen, brought all further attempts *of 
invasion to an end. Yet the glory of Trafal- 

The project , ,. , , . . 

ofthede- gar ought to blmd no one to the immment 

have sue? ' peril which England escaped ; Napoleon's 
ceeded. manoeuvres were nearly successful ; and 

had Villeneuve had a ray of the genius of Nelson, he 
M'ould, in all probability, have made the descent possi- 
ble. What saved England was not the defence of the 
Channel, which was left too feebly guarded, but the 
terror of her fleets, and the demoralization of her foes ; 
and though Napoleon ought to have taken these moral 
elements more fully into account, he was not far from 
accomplishing his design. We believe, however, that he 
entirely underrated the resistance which he would have to 
encounter had he succeeded in making the descent ; the 
English army was of considerable strength ; and on this, 
as on other occasions, he unduly disregarded the enor- 



1805. The Empire to Tilsit. 209 

mous power of national forces under certain conditions. 
He might have captured London, but he would, we think, 
have been ultimately imprisoned within his conquest. 

Trafalgar, however, was soon forgotten in the exulta- 
tion of a career of victories. The disaster 

Napoleon 

of Ulm put an end to the scheme of mvasion marches on 
formed by the Coalition ; and, having sent 
detachments to subdue the Tyrol, Napoleon, with the 
mass of his forces, marched down the Danube on the 
Austrian capital. The army he commanded was the 
finest which France, perhaps, ever sent into the field ; 
it had been trained in its camps at Boulogne to the high- 
est point of endurance and vigor ; it had been organized 
upon the system of corps d'arm6e, and separate reserves, 
since adopted by all Continental armies ; though it num- 
bered several German contingents, it was not filled with 
unwilling auxiliaries, as became the case in subsequent 
campaigns ; arid if it had suffered greatly in its late 
forced marches, it presented a combination of freedom 
of movement, of activity, energy and trustworthy force, 
which justified the name of the Grand Army, tj^^ Grand 
thenceforward given it by its mighty leader, -^rmy. 
The conquering host rolled swiftly onwards, a few Aus- 
trian divisions and the Russian army, which had 
reached the Inn, falling back before it; arid after pass- 
ing the undefended lines of the feeders of the great 
Austrian stream, it was in possession of Vienna at the 
middle of November. Meanwhile the Russians, led by 
Kutusoff, a captain destined to future re- 

_ , Vienna oc- 

nown, had judiciously retreated into Mora- cupied Nov. 
via, opposing, as obviously was the course ^' 
of prudence, time and distance to the far advancing 
enemy ; and before long they were encamped round 
Olmutz, supported by several Au'strian detachments. 
P 



2IO The Empire to Tilsit, ch. xii. 

Napoleon, however, having become master of the 
bridges of Vienna by a stratagem, crossed boldly to the 
northern bank of the Danube, carrying out his system 
of daring movements, and relying on the ascendency 
of immense success ; and towards the close of Novem- 
ber the Grand Army was collected, apparently in a 
disseminated state, but really within the hands of its 
chief, in Lower Moravia, around Briinn and Auster- 
litz. His position had now become critical, for Prussia, 
terrified at recent events, had begun to arm, and was 
about to descend through Bohemia on the French 
line of retreat, and the Archduke Charles, with his 
brother John, was hastening with a considerable force 
from Hungary ; and had the Allies simply awaited 
events. Napoleon must have retired before them. The 
Czar, however, Alexander, against the advice of Kutusoff, 
resolved to attack the French Emperor — ^that great cap- 
tain had purposely assumed a timid attitude to deceive 
his foe — and in the last days of November, the Allied 
forces broke up from Olmutz, and marched on Aus- 
„ , , terlitz. An ambitious attempt to out-flank 

Battle of /^. 

Austeriitz, Napolcon, and mtercept his retreat on 
1805." ^' Vienna, unduly weakened the line of his 

Allied*^ *^^ enemy ; he seized an opportunity which he 
army. \i2A foreseen ; and, after a fierce and mur- 

derous struggle, the Allied army was pierced in the cen- 
tre, and became a mass of shattered and ruined frag- 
ments. The Sun of Austeriitz, to which the conqueror 
was wont to refer with just pride, saw the warlike strength 
of the Coalition struck down. 

This great victory — the masterpiece of 

Peace of Pres- ° ^ ^ 

burg, Dec. 15, Napoleon's tactics on the field of battle— 
^ °^' was followed in a few days by a peace, made 

at Presburg. The Czar lost nothing but military fame ; 



1805. The Empire to Tilsit. 211 

but Austria was compelled to surrender Venice, annexed 

to the new Italian kingdom ; and she ceded the Tyrol to 

Bavaria, and recognized the Elector as an independent 

Sovereign. Baden and Wiirtemburg were also enlarged, 

and the Elector of Wiirtemburg made, too, 

a King; and thus Austria, the old rival of feaed^by It. ^ ' 

France, was reduced to a Power of the second 

order, and the policy was carried on of extending the 

influence of France among the minor States of Germany. 

The King of Naples was soon afterwards dethroned, as 

a member of the late Coalition ; and the 

T-. i- A i • "it • ^ i- Austria ceases 

Emperor of Austria, with a just sense 01 to be Head of 
dignity, acknowledged his position, and E^pke™^^^ 
abandoned his claims to the German Empire, 
long an appanage of his House. Bavaria, Baden, and 
Wiirtemburg, with some lesser States, were now formed 
by Napoleon into what he called the Con- ^, ^ ^ , 

•' ^ The Confede- 

federation of the Rhine ; and those German ration of the 
Powers which, in the late campaign, had 
proved useful and willing allies, became mere vassals of 
the French Empire, with their military forces in the hands 
of his chief. In this state of things Prussia was left 
wholly isolated ; and she was soon to reap 
the fruits of a policy which, beginning in pms^sfa^.''"'^ ° 
aggression, had ended in greed. Partly from 
alarm, and partly owing to an alleged violation of her 
territory by the French, Prussia had, we have seen, pre- 
pared to attack Napoleon, when dangerously exposed, in 
the rear ; but after Austerlitz, her government recurred 
to its former course, and had accepted Han- 
over, for some time occupied by the French ^^^ power. 
armies, as the price of a renewed alliance 
with France, though this perfidy was justly condemned 
by her people, and could only provoke the scorn of Na- 



212 The E^npire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

poleon. The spoliation of the patrimony of the Cro-wn 
caused England at once to declare war against Prussia ; 
and that Power, having endeavored secretly to form a 
new Coalition against France, and a chance of peace 
with England having arisen on the accession of Mr. Fox 
to power. Napoleon dealt with Prussia after her own 
measure, and offered to make over Hanover to Great 
Britain. This, and one or two other acts of 

It declares war '--u i • j j 

against France. L^e kmcl, proved too much for the patience 

of the Prussian court; and, in September, 

1806, it recklessly drew the sword, amidst the exultation 

of an army proud of the great traditions of Leuthen and 

Rosbach. A daring offensive movement was begun ; and 

by the first days of October the Prussian 

1806^™^^'^" ° forces had crossed the Elbe, and carelessly 

advanced, extended along an immense line, 

from the Lower Saale to the Thuringian Forest. The 

Grand Army which, since Austerlitz, had remained, for 

the most part, in Germany, and had been gradually 

directed on the Maine, was now moved through the 

Franconian defiles ; and, issuing from the valley of the 

^ . ^ ^ Upper Saale, fell on the rear of its incautious 

Battles of Jena ^^ 

and Auerstadt, foe, and Overwhelmed the Prussians in a 
'^^'^ ' great battle at Jena, and another fought on 
the same day at Auerstadt. This success proved deci- 
sive, though Napoleon's manoeuvres were hardly as 
skilful as in previous campaigns ; in a few days the whole 
Prussian army, driven across the Elbe, had either dis- 
appeared or become a mass of demoralized captives ; 
, , . Berlin had been opened to the conquerors : 

Ruin of the , , _ , ■, 1 , -, -, -, 

Prussian army and the French standards had advanced to 
monarc y, ^^ Oder, the military Monarchy of ' Frede- 
rick the Great having been crushed in about three weeks. 
This astonishing triumph in its rapid suddenness 



1805. The Empire to Tilsit. 213 

surpassing: all that he had as yet achieved, Napoleon 

r o ■/ . marches 

impelled Napoleon to fresh efforts. Rus- against the 

■11' 111 ir 1 r Russians. 

sia had declared war before the rout of 
Jena, and had marched an army across her frontier ; a 
few thousand defeated Prussian troops had escaped to 
the northern verge of the Monarchy ; and, disdaining 
the perils of a winter campaign, the victor resolved to 
press forward, and to bring the war to a speedy con- 
clusion. His legions were soon upon the Vistula ; and 
having crossed that great barrier stream, he endeavored 
to bring his enemy to bay in the vast region of marsh 
and forest formed by the Bug, the Narew, the Ukra, 
and other rivers of Western Poland. But „.. 

Winter cam- 
here his method of rapid invasions, his troops paign in 

living on the territories they entered, re- 
ceived a check from the forces of Nature, significant of 
its essential dangers ; the Grand Army was arrested in 
its march, and exposed to cruel privations and want in 
the midst of barren and pathless swamps ; and after a 
series of fruitless engagements, it fell back from Pultusk 
to the Vistula; The French Emperor now 
put his soldiers into winter quarters along i8(^f^'^" ° 
the line which extends from Warsaw to 
Thorn and the Baltic, and made preparations to besiege 
Dantzic ; but he was not given the repose he expected. 
The Russian commander Benningsen, proud of having 
resisted the conqueror with success, attempted to assail 
him in his cantonments ; and moving his army behind 
the screen of the lakes which fill the distance from the 
Narew to the Passarge, fell on the extreme left of the 
French divisions along the seaboard of Eastern Prussia. 
Napoleon, however, had anticipated the stroke ; and 
his antagonist having begun to retreat, he pursued and 
attacked the Russians at Eylau on February 8, 1807. 



214 'Jl^he Empire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

Indecisive bat- xhg battle was terribly and sternly con- 
tie of Eylau, ■' • i r 

Feb. 1807. tested ; and though the Russians retired from 

the field, the losses of the French were so heavy 
that they were not equal to prolong the contest! Na- 
. -^ poleon was now in real danger, far away 
poieon. from France, and with the great Powers of 

Germany conquered, but indignant, occupying his re- 
treat ; but he stood firm and applied himself with more 
than even his wonted energy to restore his forces. Troops 
were raised in thousands from all parts of the Empire, 
of which its chief wielded the ample resources with ex- 
traordinary administrative skill : and in a 

Keorgamza- , i i r • 1 

tion of the few months the havoc of war was repaired, 
rmy. ^^^ ^^ Grand Army in greater strength 
than before. Hostilities were resumed in June ; and 
Benningsen imprudently advanced to attack an antago- 
^ . . . nist greatly his superior in for.ce. The Rus- 

Decisive vie- . " ^ ^ 

tory of the sians wcre soon repelled from the Passarge ; 
Friediand, and Benningsen, in an attempt to get back 
June 14, 1807. ^Q ^^ frontier, having crossed the Alle with 
extreme incaution. Napoleon fell on him with terrible 
effect, compelled him to fight with his back to the 
stream, and routed him on the 14th of June, not far 
from the little town of Friediand. This stroke was de- 
cisive ; Defore a week had passed the Grand Army was on 
the banks of the Niemen I'-and, with Dantzic, the whole 
remaining provinces of the Prussian Monarchy passed 
into the hands of the conquerors. Within less than two 
years the imperial eagles, which crowned the standards 
of the French armies, had flown from the British seas, 
across prostrate Germany, to the distant verge of the 
Russian empire ; war had never been seen in such 
grandeur before ; though Napoleon's movements had 
not been free from hazards which had attracted the atten- 



I Soy. The Empire io Tilsit. 215 

tion of a few thoughtful minds, though unseen by the 
crowd in the glare of victory. 

In this series of triumphs we see the stra- ^, -. . 

■^ Characteristics 

tegy of 1796 repeated, on a larger scale, and of these cam- 
with greater results. To seize the decisive ^^' 
points in the theatre of war, to bring a superior force 
upon them, and to interpose between divided enemies 
and beat them in detail by rapid manoeuvres, were the 
main objects of Napoleon's movements ; and he gene- 
rally attained them by daring attacks, and by forced 
marches which placed his soldiers on the most vulne- 
rable parts of the hostile line. In these campaigns, how- 
ever, he had been greatly seconded by the mistakes of 
enemies, who had usually contrived to present them- 
selves to his crushing blbws ; his system, as we have 
seen, had shown signs of failing when exposed to the 
strain of natural obstacles ; and as the armies he led 
were infinitely better than those of the Allies in every 
respect, his exploits were not perhaps so wonderful as 
those around Mantua and on the Adige. Such exhibi- 
tions of military force had, however, never Changes in the 
been made before ; and the antiquated 
methods of slow advances, of timid movements upon an 
immense front, and of never passing an untaken for- 
tress, were finally abandoned by European generals. 
Thus in war, as in many other particulars, the French 
Revolution wrought changes which had made it a new 
era in the History of the World ; and the strategy of 
Napoleon, in some of its aspects, was an expression of 
the increased energy and activity generated by that 
event. The scenes which followed the vie- „ . . 

Meeting of 

tory of Friedland rather bore a likeness to Alexander an4 

. , . ,. Napoleon on 

a Strange romance than to the ordmary the Niemen, 
arrangements of affairs of State. Unable to J""^ ^s, iSo?. 



2i6 The Empire to Tilsit. CH. xii. 

resist, the Czar sued for peace ; but Napoleon welcomed 
Alexander as a friend, for he wished to make him sub- 
serve his policy ; and after interviews between the two 
potentates, held chiefly in a floating tent on the Niemen, 
in the presence of the French and Russian armies, peace 
Treat of Til- ^^^ made at Tilsit, on the north Prussian 
sit, July 7 and frontier. By this celebrated treaty Prussia 
' ^ °^" was deprived of more than half her former 

possessions, and became a mere vassal of the French 
Empire ; a kingdom of Westphalia was carved out of 
her Elbe Provinces and added to the Confederation of 
the Rhine ; and her conquests in Poland were given to 
Saxony — she had taken part with France in the late 
campaigns — under the curious name of the Grand Duchy 
of Warsaw. At the same 'time France and Russia 
united in an alliance of the most intimate kind ; the 
Czar recognized the French Empire, and pledged him- 
self to uphold its power, and — what was more important 
— he undertook to offer his mediation to England, and, 
if she refused it, to go to war with that Power. In return 
.„. , for a co-operation which appeared to set a 

Alliance be- ^ , ^^ 

tween France seal to his domination in the West, Napo- 
anddismem- Icon promised to second the designs of 
PruS °^ Russian ambition in the North and East ; 
and he consented to the annexation of Fin- 
land, and of the provinces of Turkey north of the 
Danube, insisting, however, that Constantinople should, 
in no contingency, become Russian. The conqueror 
justified the^dismemberment of Prussia, and her seem- 
ing ruin as a State, by a reference to the proclamation 
pf Brunswick in 1792. 

„, . The purpose of Napoleon in making this 

poieon in mak- treaty was to obtain a complete and enduring 

""^^ y- guarantee for the supremacy of France on 



1807. The Empire to Tilsit. 217 

the European Continent, to divide Germany more tho- 
roughly than before, and to subject her everywhere to 
French influence, and, finally, to raise a new foe against 
England, whose efforts might lead to important results ; 
and it appeared an admirable scheme of state-craft, if 
such disturbing elements as national passions and the 
jealousies of rulers had no existence. The dangers, 
however, that lay hid under the new arrangement of the 
map of Europe, and in the results of French conquests, 
were as yet withdrawn from almost every eye ; and the 
power of Napoleon was now at its height, 
though his empire was afterwards somewhat j^s height ^"^ ^ 
enlarged. At this period that gigantic rule 
extended undisputed from the pillars of Hercules to the 
furthest limits of Eastern Germany ; if England still 
stood in arms against it, she was without an avowed ally 
on the Continent ; and, drawing to itself the great Power 
of the North, it appeared to threaten the civilized world 
with that universal and settled domination which had not 
been seen since the fall of Rome. The 
Sovereign of France from the Scheldt to the French 
Pyrenees, and of Italy from the Alps to the "^p^"^^- 
Tiber, Napoleon held under his immediate sway the 
fairest and most favored part of the Continent ; and yet 
this was only the seat and centre of that far-spreading 
and immense authority. One of his brothers, 
Louis, governed the Batavian Republic, con- dom^?^ ^"^" 
verted into the Kingdom of Holland; 
another, Joseph, wore the old Crown of Naples ; and a 
third, Jerome, sat on the new throne of Westphalia ; and 
he had reduced Spain to a simple dependency, while, 
with Austria humbled and Prussia crushed, he was su- 
preme in Germany from the Rhine to the Vistula, through 
his confederate, subject, or allied States. This enor- 



2i8 ^ The E??ipire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

Allied and sub-, mous Empire, with its vassal appendages, 

rested on great and victorious armies 
in possession of every point of vantage from the 
Niemen to the Adige and the Garonne, and proved as 
yet to be irresistible ; and as Germany, Holland, Poland, 
and Italy swelled the forces of France with large con- 
tingents, the whole fabric of conquest seemed firmly ce- 
mented. Nor was the Empire the mere creation of brute 
force and the spoil of the sword ; its author endeavored, 
in some measure, to consolidate it through better and 

more lasting influences. Napoleon, indeed, 
promoted civ- Suppressed the ideas of 1789 everywhere, 
some respects. ^^^ ^^ introduced his Code and large social 

reforms into most of the vassals or allied 
States ; he completed the work of destroying Feudalism 
which the Revolution had daringly begun ; and he left a 
permanent mark on the face of Europe, far beyond the 
limit of Republican France, in innumerable monuments 
of material splendor. And thus it has happened that 
much that he founded has survived his fall and his short- 
lived conquests ; the extent of his sway may be still 
traced by the reach of institutions established by him ; 
.and even nations who felt the terrors of his sword and 
rose justly against his domination, still acknowledge that 
his rule was not without good, and have a kind of sym- 
pathy with the modern Caesar. 

Nor did the Empire at this time appear more firmly 

established abroad, than within the limits 
Franc?^"*^ ° o^ the dominant State which had become 

mistress of Continental Europe. The pros- 
perity of the greater part of France was immense ; the 
finances, fed by the contributions of war, seemed over- 
flowing and on the increase; and if sounds of discon- 
tent were occasionally heard, they were lost in the uni- 



1807. The Empire to Tilsit. 219 

versal acclaim which greeted the author of the national 
greatness, and the restorer of social order and welfare. 
The Jacobin faction had long shrunk out of sight ; the 
memory of the Revolution and the Reign of Terror was 
felt as a foolish or hideous dream ; the public tranquillity- 
was undisturbed ; and, in the splendor and success of 
the Imperial era, the animosities and divisions of the 
past disappeared, and France seemed to form a united 
People. If, too, the cost of conquest was great, and 
exacted a tribute of French blood, the military power of 
the Empire shone with the brightest radiance of martial 
renown ; Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland ' 
could in part console even thinned households ; a career 
of glory opened on soldiers which, if brief, was not sel- 
dom brilliant ; and the chiefs of the armies, enriched 
with the wealth of vanquished Provinces and subject 
Kingdoms, and invested with lofty and sounding titles, 
forgot the rivalries of an earlier time, and joined in do- 
cile homage to their great master. The 
magnificent public works with which Napo- ^f Napoleon. ^ 
leon adorned this part of his reign, increased 
this sentiment of national grandeur ; it was fiow that the 
Madeleine raised its front, and the Column, moulded 
from captured cannon, which a fresh outburst of Jacobin 
frenzy overthrew, only a few months ago, in the presence 
of the mocking enemies of France ; and Paris, decked 
out with triumphal arches, with temples of glory, and 
with stately streets, put on the aspect of ancient Rome, 
gathering into her lap the gorgeous spoils of subjugated 
and dependent races. The government of „, 

IT-- 11-1 !• .-I r Character of 

the Empire had by this time become of a his Govern- 
purely monarchic type ; it had abolished all ""^" " 
republican forms, even to the calendar of 1793, and had 
made dukes, counts and barons by scores, out of the 



2 20 The Empire of Tilsit. ch. xii. 

leading men of the new age ; but if it showed the defects 
of an absolute power, it was still essentially the firm, 
national, and equal despotism of the Consulate, recon- 
ciling parties, keeping down anarchy, and as yet accept- 
able to a people which had forgotten even the thought 
of liberty. Nor had the great reforms of the Consulate 
been without ample and beneficent fruit ; religious pas- 
sions had altogether subsided ; and the State was admin- 
istered with an energy, a regularity, and a general equity, 
which France had never experienced before. 

Yet, notwithstanding its apparent strength, 
weakness and this Structure of conquest and domination 
Empire? ^ was essentially weak, and liable to decay. 
The work of the sword, and of new-made 
power, it was in opposition to the nature of things ; it 
came in conflict with national traditions, with popular in- 
stincts, with moral forces ; and it was to illustrate the old 
fable of the Titans heaping Pelion on Ossa, and being 
overwhelmed by the bolts of Olympus. The material and 
^ , . even social benefits conferred by the Code, 

Indignation , ^ - 

of conquered and retorm of abuses, could not compensate 
vanquished but martial races for the misery 
and disgrace of subjection ; and, apart from the com- 
mercial oppression of .which we shall say a word here- 
after, the exasperating pressure of French officials, the 
exactions of the victorious French armies, and the severi- 
ties of the conscription introduced among them, provoked 
discontent in the vassal States on which the yoke of the 
Empire weighed ; and made the people of the Confede- 
ration of the Rhine, of Germany, and even by degrees 
, of Italy, more or less hostile to the rule of 

Tendency of 

Germany to the Stranger. Tne prostration, too, of Aus- 
common '^"suf- tria and Prussia, which had been the resvilt 
fering. q^ \^^^ events, had a direct tendency to make 



1807. The Empire to Tilsit. 221 

tl\ese Power'^ forget their old discords in common suffer- 
ing, and to bring to an end the internal divisions through 
which France had become supreme in Ger- 
many ; the recent formation of a Saxon Russ^°"^^ 
Poland, an evident protest against the Par- 
tition, couid not fail ultimately to give umbrage to the 
Czar ; and the triumphant policy of Tilsit contained the 
germs of a Coalition against France more formidable 
than she had yet experienced. At the same _ ,. 

■' ^ . Decline of the 

tmie, the real strength of the instrument by Grand Army in 
which Napoleon maintained his power, was ^ '^^"^ 
being gradually but surely impaired ; the imperial armies 
were more and more filled with raw conscripts and ill- 
affected allies, as their size increased with the extension 
of his rule ; and the French element in them, on which 
alone reliance could be placed in possible defeat, was 
being dissipated, exhausted, and wasted. Add that while 
it was being thus sapped at the root, the Empire had been 
continually growing, with a growth too rapid to be sound 
or lasting, that the ambition of its chief appeared to en- 
large as the circle of his conquests expanded, and that 
the old League of the Continental Powers against the 
Revolution was being gradually changed into an alliance, 
unrecognized as yet, but being formed of nations against 
a military despot ; and we shall understand what perils 
lurked beneath the surface of the imperial sway which 
overawed Europe. 

Nor was the Empire, within France itself, 
free from elements of instability and decline. "^^^ '■^" , 

•' sources of 

The finances, well administered as they France 
were, were so burdened by the charges of strained. 
war, that they were only sustained by con- ^ 

quest ; and, flourishing as their condition seemed, they 
had been often cruelly strained of late, and were unable 



2 22 The Empire to Tilsit. ch. xii. 

to bear the shock of disaster. The seaports were be- 
ginning to suffer from the pohcy adopted to subdue 
England ; and though the Emperor made persistent 
efforts to prepare for " an Actium in the British Chan- 
nel," they invariably ended in disgrace and failure. 
Meanwhile, the continual demands on the youth of the 
nation for never-ceasing wars, were gradually telling 
on its military power ; Napoleon, after Eylau, had had 
recourse to the ruinous expedient of taking beforehand 
the levies which the conscription raised ; and though 
complaints were as yet rare, the anticipation of the re- 
sources of France, which filled the armies with feeble 
"boys unequal to the hardships of a rude campaign, had 
-, , ., been noticed at home as well as abroad. 

Moral evils 

of the rule of Nor wcrc the moral ills of this splendid 
apo eon, dcspotism less certain than its bad material 
results. Too much, indeed, has perhaps been made of 
the political corruption of the imperial system ; for 
though instruments of new power are peculiarly subject 
to this baneful influence, it does not appear to have been 
worse than it had been under the fallen Monarchy ; and 
the France of Napoleon did not parade the shameless 
dissoluteness and social vices which had characterized 
part of the republican era. It is also unfair to ascribe 
to the Empire the want of eminence in art and letters 
which we see in France during the whole period from 
1789 to 181 5, for this deficiency was mainly due to the 
concentration on alien subjects of the energies of the 
French intellect, even if it be true that the attempts 
made by the Emperor to remove the dearth were rather 
calculated to prolong and increase it. Still the inevita- 
ble tendency of the Empire, even at the time of its high- 
est glory, was to lessen manliness and self-reliance, to 
fetter and demoralize the human mind, and to weaken 



1807. The Empire to Tilsit. 223 

whatever public virtue and mental independence France 
possessed ; and its authority had already begun to dis- 
close some of the harsher features of C^sarian despo- 
tism. This was seen not merely in arbitrary acts, but in 
suspicious jealousy of any forces or influences not con- 
trolled by the State, and in an interference, petty and 
vexatious alike, even with the arrangements of social 
life ; and the effects were slowly provoking ridicule or 
discontent, though the murmurs as yet were scarcely 
heard. 
The great and paramount cause, however, ^ 

° ^ Insecurity of 

of the msecurity of Napoleon's Empire was his power 
that its existence hung not only on the life, pended niain- 
but on the will of its mighty creator. With- ^^ ^" himself, 
out solid foundations abroad, and springing from Revo- 
lution at home, it was, in the main, the work of a single 
man ; and it might obviously perish as quickly as it 
arose by the death of its chief, or through the failure of 
the gigantic projects which he could design and com- 
pass, without the least check on his undivided power. 
And the Sovereign who wielded this immense authority 
was a soldier who had hardly known defeat, who stood 
at the head of gigantic armies, and whose soaring 
imagination, urged by ambition, was one of the most 
distinctive of many splendid faculties ! And the ruler 
who had reached these heights of grandeur had over- 
thrown the Old Order of Europe, and had placed his 
foot on the necks of conquered nations ; yet was really 
sustained only by the unstable forces of a State recently 
torn by Revolution, and by a Nation of which the incon- 
stancy had been stimulated of late by every possible 
means, which could pass with the rapidity of thought 
from enthusiastic devotion to scorn and hatred, and 
which, especially at the touch of misfortune, could sud- 



224 The Empire to j8ij. ch. xiii. 

denly awake from gilded servitude, and with strange 
levity repudiate what it had seemed to revere ! Should 
that vaulting ambition o'erleap itself, should disaster 
overtake the spoiled child of fortune, should that des- 
potism weigh with too heavy a burden, in what perils 
would the Empire be involved, amidst a hostile Europe, 
and a France linked to Napoleon chiefly by the frail I 
tie of success ? 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EMPIRE TO 1813. 

Before the war which ended with the Peace of Tilsit, 

the conduct of Napoleon had, in many re- 

of the'^°^^^*^' spects, been that of a great and sagacious 

Solicy of ruler. He had doubtless, even then, given 

lapoleon. _ ' ' ° 

proof of a passion for power, and of grasp- 
ing ambition, had revealed a purpose to extend still 
further the domination of France on the Continent, had 
committed a great political mistake in irritating and de- 
fying England, and had justly outraged the opinion of 
Europe by the execution of the Duke of Enghien ; and 
as the character of man does not really change, though 
circumstances may largely affect his acts, it is possible 
to show that, from the beginning of his career, he was 
one and the same in his essential nature. But History, 



1807-8. The Empire to 18 ij. 225 

in judging the leaders of States, can hardly enter into 
this minute inquiry ; and as it contemplates the public 
life of Napoleon during the first part of his wonderful 
career, it can excuse much that is more or less blame- 
worthy, and finds more to admire than to condemn. 
Many of the reforms of the First Consul remain monu- 
ments of his great capacity, and his despotism in France, 
though heavy from the first, was also attended with im- 
mense benefits ; and if he annexed half-subject Italian 
provinces, if he increased the- influence of France in 
Germany, if he precipitated an unfinished quarrel with 
England ; nay, if he put to death iniquitously a Bourbon 
Prince, his policy and conduct in these particulars may 
be justified, in a greater or less degree, from the pecu- 
liarities of the time, the condition of Europe, the tradi- 
tions of France for long ages, the antecedents of the 
aggressive Republic, and the violence and confusion of 
an era of Revolution. But conquest, and all engrossing 
power on a scale hitherto unknown in Europe, had the 
influence on this extraordinary man which they have 
exercised on natures of the same kind ; they enlarged 
the scope of his daring ambition, and made his sanguine 
intellect believe that nothing was beyond the reach of 
his efforts ; and they led him into a series of acts, the 
imprudence and inexpediency of which were perceived 
even by ordinary men, and which hastened, probably 
by many years, the ruin of that colossal dominion, 
which, however, could not have been lasting, We have 
already seen that the Treaty of Tilsit tended 
to unite Germany, and even Russia at last, for the ^"^^^ 
in hostility against the French Empire ; "^9^^.^ ^^^^^ 
and from this time forward Napoleon en- 
gages in enterprises and in a course of policy, in which, 
if we still see his genius for war, and his skill in admin- 
Q 



226 The Empire to i8ij. ch. xiii. 

istering affairs of State, we more often trace the excesses 
of mere force, the presumptuous over-confidence of suc- 
cess, and the exaggerated notions of arrogance and 
pride. 

One of the first cares of the French Emperor, after 
_, ^ . sheathing his victorious sword at Friedland, 

The Conti- ° 

nentai sys- was to mature a scheme for subduing Eng- 
em, I 07- , land, and forcing her to accept a humiHa- 
ting peace, which had occupied his thoughts for a con- 
siderable time, and became known as the Continental 
system. The Directory had, many years before, at- 
tempted to injure British commerce by excluding English 
and colonial produce from the ports and territories of 
France and her allies ; and England had retaliated by 
severe measures which even the occasion could hardly 
justify. Such acts, however, were trifling compared to 
the vast plan for ruining England through her trade, 
which Napoleon conceived in 1806 — 7, and which forms 
one of the most striking instances in which despotism 
has set itself to contend against nature. The Lord and 
controller of five-sixths of the Continent, he deliberately 
resolved to close Europe, along its circumference, to 
access from England; and for this purpose, by two 
famous ordinances, known as the Berlin and Milan De- 
crees, he declared that English and colonial merchan- 
dize should be confiscated wherever it was found, in the 
Empire or its allied States, and that even shipping which 
touched at British harbors should be included in the 
general proscription. As France commanded the entire 
coast from the Baltic to the Mediterranean seas, and 
Russia fell in with Napoleon's project, the effect of this 
scheme, if fully realized, would have been to shut out Eng- 
land from all the best markets, to cripple her resources, 
and to blight her industry ; and though it was never even 



1807-8. The Empire to 18 13, 227 

nearly carried out, it certainly did her a 

great deal of injury. The consequences, how- chievous^* 

ever, to the French Empire and its depen- ^^^^^ ^p^" . 

' ^ ^ the ii,mpire. 

dencies were to be far more disastrous.* The 
Continental system caused frightful distress in a short 
time in every maritime town from Riga to Amsterdam 
and Venice, and blotted, as it were, their prosperity out, 
by sapping and impeding their trade ; and it created 
general and just discontent in all the allied and vassal 
States, and even within the limits of France, by depriv- 
ing' millions of the conveniences of life, and by subject- 
ing the mercantile and manufacturing classes to the 
oppressions and exactions of a host of officials cha;rged 
to enforce its harsh and unfair restrictions. This system, 
in fact, was a vexatious tyranny which did palpable-and 
wide-spread mischief, and brought the sense of wrong 
home to innumerable hearths ; and it quickened the 
exasperation and animosity of the subjugated but reluc- 
tant Continent. This, however, was hardly its principal 
result ; the iniquitous provisions of his commercial 
policy being largely eluded outside of France, Napoleon 
was urged still further to stretch the boun- 
daries of his overgrown Empire, and to pro- NapoK 
ceed to fresh annexations and conquests • *° ^"^"^^ 

^ ' conquests. 

and this supposed necessity, in conjunction 
with the promptings of his ever-growing ambition, con- 
tributed greatly to his final overthrow. 

The establishment of the Continental system caused 
Napoleon at once to turn his eyes to Spain and the 
neighboring kingdom, Portugal, which, though still in- 

*The ruinous effects of the Continental system in weakening 
the Empire and impelling Napoleon to fresh conquests are well 
pointed out in M. Lanfrey's Histoire de Napoleon I. vol. iii. 
chap, 10, 



228 The Empire to i8ij. ch. xiii. 

dependent States in name, had, and Spain especially, 

become subject more or less completely to the ruler of 

France. An event which occurred in the 

Project of in- i , . , , 

vading Spain autumn oi 1807 accelerated a design already 
an ortuga . fQj-]^;[;^g(j^ ^^d he rcsolvcd to drive the Sov- 
ereigns of the Peninsula from their thrones, and to con- 
vert it into a vassal Province. Russia, after Tilsit, as 
had been agreed, had offered her mediation to England, 
and had declared war when it had been refused ; and as 
Napoleon, with the consent of the Czar, had proposed to 
force Denmark to place her resources at the disposition 
of the two potentates, the English ministry had antici- 
pated the stroke, and, as the Danes would not give up 
their fleet, had caused Copenhagen to be 

Napoleon de- "^ ° 

thrones the bombarded. On the plea that this act, the 

House of Bra- , 1 r i • -i • r •, ^ 

ganza, Nov. harshness of which was infinitely more ap- 
Dec. 1807. parent than real, permitted him to do what 
he liked in Europe, Napoleon pushed forward an army 
on Lisbon, and proclaimed that the House of Braganza 
had ceased to reign ; and soon afterwards he gradually 
introduced considerable forces into Spain, which took pos- 
session of the frontier fortresses and ultimately advanced 
beyond Madrid. The dissensions of the imbecile Span- 
, . ish Bourbons facilitated the Emperor's un- 

family of Spain scrupulous policv ; and Charles IV., the 

enticed to f5ay- . , ^^. ,' . ^ , ^ 

onne, and in- nominal King, havmg refused to sanction 
cat?i? ^^^'' an abdication in favor of his son extorted 

throne, May, {xoYH him, Napoleon induced the whole 
1808. '^ 

royal family to accept him as the arbiter of 

their rights, and having brought them together at Bay- 

onne, obtained from the old King a cession of the 

Crown, and immediately conferred it on his brother 

Joseph. This treacherous deed of violence and wrong, 

though accompanied by a new Constitution for Spain, 



1807-8. The Empire to 18 ij. 229 

which put an end to many inveterate abuses, led to un- 
expected and momentous consequences. ^ , . . 

^ _ -J General rising 

The pride of the Spaniards was stirred to in Spain, May, 

,,,,,. , June, 1808. 

Its depths ; the Nation sprang as a man to 
arms, to resist the detested yoke of the stranger; juntas, 
as they were called, promoted and organized an insur- 
rection in every province ; and in an incredibly short 
time great bands of levies, far from worthless foes in a 
land of mountains, had, with what existed of the regu- 
lar army, fallen on the invaders wherever they could be 
found, and encircled them, as it were, with a consuming 
fire. The rising was vigorously supported from England, 
and before long its effects were remarkable. Napoleon 
had been completely surprised, in his usual ^ . , . 

,. ■, . r • Capitulation 

scorn of popular feelings ; his forces in of Baylen, 
Spain were widely scattered, and unable to iSos/^* ^°' 
keep the country down ; and though his soldiers were 
easily victorious in one or two engagements in the open 
field, one of his lieutenants, Dupont, was obliged to 
surrender with a large detachment in the Sierra Morena, 
and another was ignominiously driven out of Castile. 
Meanwhile, a British force under Sir Arthur ^. 

First appear- 

Wellesley — a name destined to illustrious ance of Sir a. 
fame — had defeated the French divisions in the scene! °" 
Portugal, and had also compelled them to cfntTa" A°ug°^ 
capitulate ; and a French squadron in the 3°, 1808. 
harbor of Cadiz had been destroyed or forced to strike 
its colors. Before the autumn of 1808 the „ , 

. Great re- 

imperial eagles had been made to fly m verses of the 

disastrous retreat towards the seat of their 

power, and not a Frenchman south of the Ebro was 

seen. 

These disasters amazed and excited Europe, and filled 
Napoleon with indignation. His renown, he knew well. 



230 The Empire to 181J. ch. xiii. 

was the mainstay of his power ; and he poured troops 
into Spain in thousands to subdue what he called " a 
rising of the mob." His disciplined armies soon scat- 
-T , tered in flight the levies that ventured to 

Napoleon in- . ° 

vades Spain cross their path ; and, having swept through 
Madrid, Dec. the Somo Sierra pass, he installed his bro- 
2, 1808. ^jjgj, -j^ pomp in Madrid. But the national 

resistance lived on ; it broke out in a savage guerilla war- 
fare, in a country made for a movement of the kind ; 
and Saragossa gave a glorious example of a defence 
imitated by other cities. Napoleon, however, went on 
persistently with the work of subjugation ; and before long 
he had crossed the Guadarramas again, in pursuit of a 
small British army, which from Leon had threatened his 
line of retreat, but was retiring before his overwhelming 
_^ , , forces. His march was interrupted by the 

He leaves the r j 

Peninsula at news that the attitude of Austria was becom- 
Austria was^ ii^g dangerous ; so quitting the Peninsula, 
arming. j^g returned to France; and the enemy 

whom he had hoped to crush not only effected his es- 
cape to the sea but inflicted a check on one of his best 
lieutenants. By this time, however, a fresh contest had 
begun on another theatre of war. Encouraged by re- 
„ . - cent events in Spain, and supported by the 
1809 in Ger- British exchequer, Austria rose suddenly 
and declared war; and the Archduke 
Charles, in April 1809, advanced with a large army from 
the Inn to the Iser, his object being to surprise the 
French and their allies, dispersed widely on either bank 
.^ , , , of the Danube. Napoleon, however, who 

Defeat of the . , r • i / 

Archduke had amved from Pans, had just time to an- 

1, April 18, ticipate the stroke ; and drawing together 



vana. 



his scattered divisions with admirable pre- 
cision, quickness, and art, he turned the Austrian left 



1809. The Empire to i8i J. 231 

wing, broke through its centre, and compelled the Arch- 
duke to take refuge, completely defeated in a game of 
manoeuvres, not the least wonderful in the Emperor's 
career, behind the neighboring hills of Bohemia. The 
imperial legions once more poured victoriously down the 
valley of the Danube ; and within a month from the 
opening of the campaign, Vienna was, for the second 
time, in their power. Napoleon, however, was not able 
in 1809, as in 1805, to master the bridges near the capi- 
tal ; and in an attempt to cross to the northern bank of 
the Danube, and to bring his antagonist 
there to bay, he met a serious reverse at As- Napoleon on 

,. ,. j-'ji ^1 i the Danube at 

pern, his army bemg divided on the stream, Aspem, May 
and a sudden flood having carried away the ^^' '^^' ^^°9" 
artificial passages he had made. This disaster, however,, 
was repaired by prodigies of perseverance and skill ; 
and by July 5, the whole Grand Army, with reserves 
summoned from Italy and the Rhine, had made its way 
over the firmly-held river, and debouched into the great 
plain of the Marchfield, from an island in which it had 
been carnped and fortified. The battle which ensued 
was bloody and terrible ; a vigorous effort 
made by the Archduke against the French Wagram and 
left proved nearly successful ; but the Aus- French, July 6, 
trian centre and right were pierced ; and ^^°9- 
Napoleon, after a desperate struggle, in which nearly 
300,000 men fought, stood at last triumphant on the low 
hills of Wagram. The blow, though not nearly so over- 
whelming as those of Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland, 
was too much for the strength of Austria, 
and peace, purchased by fresh cessions of Vienna, Ogt, 
territory, was made at Vienna in autumn. ^ > ^ °9- 

This campaign restored the power of the conqueror* 
and a subsequent event appeared to increase it. Napor 



232 The Empire to 18 13. ch. xiii. 

leon had married several members of his family into 

royal Houses — vassal Sovereigns could not refuse him 

anything — and after Wagram he found means to repeat 

the experiment in his own person. His wife 

Napoleon 111 -1 

divorces Josephine had borne him no child, and in 

and^marries Order to Strengthen and prolong his dynasty 
duchess^" ^^ obtained a divorce, and soon afterwards 
Maria married a youthful daughter of the Emperor 

March '11, of Austria, the Archduchess Maria Louisa. 

This marriage was celebrated with extraor- 
dinary pomp, and seemed to set a seal on his greatness ; 
nor was the advantage for a time illusory, as Austria, 
wearied with repeated defeats, for the present inclined 
to a French alliance. England, backed by the insurrec- 
tion of Spain, now became once more the only open foe 
of the master of more than thirty legions ; and had Na- 
poleon, at this juncture, made the Peninsula feel the 
whole power of his arms, he could, humanly speaking, 
have subdued the country, and kept it free from English 

intervention. But the Emperor compara- 

Successes of . 1 1 • 

Sir Arthur tively neglected Spam, for his armies had 
x^^Xn^ ^^ routed the Spanish levies in several engage- 
SidSin ments in 1809, and, if they had been foiled 
by a British force at Oporto, and in a strug- 
gle at Talavera, they had lately compelled it to retreat 
into Portugal; and as the conquest appeared nearly com- 
plete they wgre scattered over a variety of points, and 
nowhere collected for a decisive movement, although in 
His pro. numbers extremely formidable. This state 

Sghfand ^^ things was thoroughly understood by a 

iniiitary commandcr whose wisdom was to throw a 

skill. . , . , , ^ - 

momentous weight into the scale of fortune, 
and who had perceived with profound insight the weak 
point in Napoleon's system of war, and the be§t method 



i8io-ii. The Empire to i8i J. 233 

to cope with it. Sir Arthur Wellesley — ^become Lord 
Wellington for his success at Oporto and Talavera — had 
seen clearly that the rapid invasions of the French 
armies without regular supplies might be encountered by 
obstacles and want ; and as the forces of Napoleon in 
the Peninsula appeared unlikely to draw together, he 
had satisfied himself that he could find the means of 
maintaining himself against any probable foe, and, in 
any event, of re-embarking his troops. For this pur- 
pose he caused a position on the verge of Portugal, 
between the Tagus and the sea, to be fortified with ex- 
treme care and secresy ; and he gave orders that, should 
the French advance, his army should retreat to this 
place of vantage, destroying, as it fell back, the adjacent 
regions. The consequences of these masterly arrange- 
ments were memorable in the highest degree. Napoleon, 
ignorant of what his antagonist had done, directed 
Massena, in the summer of 1810, "to drive Memorable 
the Enghsh into the sea;" but the French campaign 

° of Torres 

army was far too weak for the purpose ; and Vedras, 

when, having been checked at Busaco, it piete defeat 

arrived before the impenetrable Lines — ever French 

since famous as those of Torres Vedras — J""®» ^„^i°- 

May, 1 81 1. 

after a march of suffering through a wasted 
country, it recoiled amazed from an impassable barrier. 
After a series of attempts to bring Wellington to bay, 
Massena was ultimately compelled to retreat; and he 
reached the frontier with the mere wreck of an army 
ruined by disease and privations. 

The issue of this remarkable campaign „ 

Great results 

caused wonder and hope to thrill through of this cam- 
Europe. The forces of Napoleon in Spain influencTon*^ 
were immense ; and yet the conqueror had ^"'^SPe- 
been worsted, at the decisive point, by a small army ; 



234 ^^ Empire to 1813. CH. xiii. 

and a way to encounter him seemed discovered. Sol- 
diers began to study the strategy of Wellington as they 
had studied that of the French Emperor ; and the name 
of Torres Vedras was in every mouth as that of Rivoli ' 
and Areola had been. Meanwhile, Germany shook 
fiercely in her bonds ; secret societies spread the flame 
of patriotism, and invoked vengeance on the detested 
foreigners ; and though the courts of Austria and Prus- 
sia stood timidly aloof, and the princes of the Confede- 
ration of the Rhine continued to lick the hand of their 
master, the divided members of the great Teutonic fa- 
mily drew towards each other with the feelings of a com- 
... . mon nationality and hate of oppression. 

Agitation m . .,, , 

Germany and Disturbances, too, broke out m Holland, 
half ruined by the Continental system ; 
symptoms of discontent were apparent in Italy ; and the 
tale of Continental troubles was increased by a violent 
quarrel between Napoleon and the Pope. Nor was 
France free from anxious symptoms ; Bordeaux, Mar- 
seilles, and the seaport towns were full of sounds of an- 
ger and distress ; the steady consumption of war in 
Spain had made the conscription extremely unpopular ; 
taxation and bankruptcies had enormously increased ; 
and notwithstanding a watched Press, and mute o? ob- 
sequious Bodies of State, unquiet murmurs began to be 
heard and even to threaten a distant tempest. The real 
strength of the imperial armies had also become more 
Murmurs in ^^*^ more weakened ; the soldiers of Wagram 
France. were very inferior to those who had marched 

from the camp at Boulogne ; and the addition of feeble 
boys to the ranks, and of auxiliaries listless if not false, 
had gone on with accelerated speed. Every sign, in a 
word, of coming danger, which could have been noted 
in 1807, had grown more visible in 181 1 ; and the birth 




■^ 



i8ii. Hie Empire to 1 8 13. 235 

of a son at this time to Napoleon, was not Birth of a son 

. . . , J to Napoleon, 

felt to be, in general opniion, as it would March 20, 
have been a few years before, an assur- ^^"" 
ance of the stability of his throne. The conqueror, 
however, from the height of his splendor could 
not see the shadows that were creeping on ; and in the 
face of the Continent, awed but indignant, he incor- 
porated Rome, Holland and the Hanse Towns in the 
territories of the French Empire, in order to complete 
his rule in Italy, and to carry out more thoroughly the 
Continental system. 

These aggrandizements could not fail to arouse the 
jealousy of the only State on the Continent which still 
preserved a shadow of independence. The 
Czar had soon abandoned the alliance of crar!"and dis^ 
Tilsit; he had resented a refusal of the puteswithRus- 
French Emperor to pledge himself not to 
restore Poland or to make additions to the Grand Duchy 
of Warsaw ; and he protested against the annexation of 
the Hanse Towns, and the occupation of Prussia by 
French troops which had been continued ever since 
Friedland. Napoleon had retorted by insisting on the 
necessities of the Continental system ; and increasing 
coolness became open dissension, Alexander having, in 
self-defence, relaxed some of its worst restrictions. Na- 
poleon resolved in 181 1 to invade Russia the following 
year ; and the preparations he made for the enterprise 
surpassed all that he had yet attempted. 
Austria and Prussia were compelled to pare^^to'inv^^e 
promise him support ; the princes of the ^3"^/*^^ ^812 
Confederation of the Rhine were ordered to 
have their contingents ready ; material of war in immense 
quantities was accumulated in the North German fortress- 
es; enormous magazines were formed to afford subsist- 



236 The Empire to 181J. ch. xiii. 

ence to half a million of men, for the difficulty of follow- 
ing the usual system of war in Russia had been foreseen ; 
and the whole forces of Western Europe were banded 
together for an expedition unequalled in its gigantic con- 
ception. Slowly and by degrees the prodi- 
isS'"^^^'^ °^ gious host, an assemblage of many races 
and tongues — Italians, Germans, Dutch, 
Poles, and even Spaniards and Portuguese, commingled 
with the dominant French — was moved from distant 
points on the Continent ; and by the early spring of 18 12 
it was aggregated on the plains of Northern Germany. 
The Emperor, leaving Paris in May, was soon at Dres- 
den, where old Europe, in the persons of humbled and 
vanquished Kings, bowed in homage before the revolu- 
tionary Caesar; and on June 24, 450,000 men, with 60,000 
cavalry, and 1,200 guns, crossed the Niemen 
Army crosses ffom the Verge of Prussia, and entered the 
the Niemen, "borders of the Russian Empire. Wilna was 

June 24, 1812. t" 

attained in a few days ; but the difficulties 
of the vftst enterprise had already made themselves 
seriously felt ; desertion and disease had set in ; the 
march of the columns had been delayed by the mass of 
impediments on their track ; and Napoleon was obliged 
to make a long halt while the Russian armies, which had 
Retreat of the advanced to the frontier, escaped from his 
Russians. well-dcsigncd manoeuvres, and though sepa- 

rated and feebly led retired slowly into the distant inte- 
rior. 

The French Emperor had now the means, 

Political mis- '.-, , • • . • i r j t 

take of Napo- Without mcumng any serious risk, of dealing 
leon in not re- Russia a decisive stroke ; he might have 

storing Poland. ' o 

avenged a great public crime, and proclaimed 
the freedom of the Polish Nation. But he characteristi- 
cally preferred a merely hollow alliance with the Austrian 



i8i2. The Empire to i8i J. 237 

and Prussian Courts to the Polish People ; and though 
his armies were crowded with Polish soldiers, he inti- 
mated to a deputation at Wilna that he could not undo 
the work of the shameful Partition. He broke up from 
Wilna in the middle of July, leaving the greater part of 
his impedimenta behind, in order to pursue 
his retreating enemies, who, divided into two ^^ Russbls^^ 
great masses under Barclay de Tolly and 
Bagration, held an extended line on the verge of Lithu- 
ania, from Drissa on the Dwina, to the heads of the 
Dnieper. Napoleon's movements were made slow by 
bad roads and the want of supplies, already causing 
havoc among his troops ; and Barclay, carefully eluding 
his foe, succeeded in joining his colleague at Witepsk, 
and concentrating the united Russian forces, about 
250,000 strong. The Grand Army had, by this time, lost 
considerably more than a third of its numbers, the young 
soldiers who filled its ranks, and the auxiliaries, disap- 
pearing in thousands ; but Napoleon, hoping . . 
to out-manoeuvre his opponent, marched the Grand 
upon Smolensk©, in order to turn the posi- ^^^' 
tions of the Russians, or to compel them to fight. Barclay, 
however, now in supreme command, and imitating the 
defensive method of Wellington, merely checked the 
Emperor and fell back, destroying the country upon his 
way, and Napoleon at Smolensko only found ruins, and 
a battle continually eluding his grasp. He 

, , .„ . , . , . Precautions 

resolved still to contmue the pursuit ; but it taken by Na- 
is a mistake to suppose that he took no pre- ^° ^°"' 
cautions ; on the contrary he sent large detachments to 
cover and secure his flanks and rear ; he ordered large 
reserves to come up from Germany ; and he directed 
immense magazines to be formed at Smolensko, Wilna, 
and other places. Having thus, as he thought, made his 



•238 The Empire to 181J. ch. xiii. 

advance safe, he set off from Smolensko with about 
160,000 men, drawn on through the vast expanses of 
Russia by the hope of ever-receding victory ; but still 
Barclay stubbornly retired, and the invaders became 
more and more weakened. At last the in- 

He marches 

into the inte- dignation of the Russian army at its pro- 

rior of Russia. , , ^ ^ t i r • t • <• 

longed retreat led to the removal of its chief, 

and Kutusoff — the able veteran of 180$ — having been 

appointed to the command by the Czar, was reluctantly 

^ , ^„ forced to offer battle. The encounter took 

Battle of Bo- 
rodino, Sept. 7, place at Borodino, on the way to Moscow, 

on September 7. It was murderous beyond 
all past experience ; and though the Russians lost the 
position, their antagonists could hardly claim a triumph. 

Kutusoff, however, judiciously fell back, and 
Army^eiuerr ^^^ September 15, 1812, the Grand Army 

Moscow, Sept. ^g^g master of Moscow, the extreme limit 
15, 1812. ' 

of the march of the Tricolor. 
The daring advance into the heart of Russia, enormous 
as the losses of the French had been, now seemed justi- 
fied by the event; and Napoleon expected to dictate 
peace. A tremendous catastrophe was, however, to show 
what patriotism and hatred could plan and accomplish. 
The governor of Moscow set fire to the city 

The Russian • j ^ ^ rr -. i- ^-l. 

Governor of 1^1 Order to cut off its resources from the 
fiIrto°tIlcity. French, and as it was chiefly constructed of 

wood, it was soon a desert of devouring 
flame. Napoleon, however, still lingered on the spot, 

convinced that the Czar would yet treat ; 

Napoleon de- . . ^ 

lays in the hope though Kutusoff, meanwhile, with prudence 
o peace. ^^^ skill, had drawn together his shattered 

forces, and was already menacing the Emperor's retreat. 
The hope of negotiation having proved fruitless, the 
Grand Army at last left the ruins of Moscow on Octo- 



1 8 1 2. The Empire to i8i J. 239 

ber iq, the intention of Napoleon being to Beginningof 

-" ... the retreat 

march southward, and to attain Lithuania from Moscow, 
through a country in which his soldiers 
could find the means of subsistence. The movements, 
however, of the French were sluggish, for they had 
loaded themselves with the spoils of Moscow ; and after 
an indecisive action at Malo Jaroslavetz, the Emperor 
abandoned his previous design, and retreated by the v,ray 
he had before advanced. The sufferings of 
the French in this wasted region became ^^ retreat! ° 
gradually more and more intense ; famine, 
aided by cold, destroyed thousands ; Kutusoff hung on 
the flanks of the perishing host, annoying it with brist- 
ling swarms of Cossacks ; and the Grand Army which, 
before leaving Moscow, was still more than 100,000 
strong, dwindled into a mass of 40,000 fugitives before it 
reached the remains of Smolensko. News of fresh mis- 
fortunes were here received ; the magazines had been 
hardly formed ; two Russian armies, bearing before them 
the detachments he had left to protect his flanks, were 
gathering to bar the Emperor's retreat, and ^ 

" ° ^ Imminent peril 

the only chance of safety was to press on- of Napoleon 
ward, and endeavor to open a way to Wilna. mains of the 
The wreck of the Grand Army, before long ^'"'"y- 
joined by the divisions which had tried to cover its wings, 
toiled feebly along the Lithuanian wastes, pursued, as 
hitherto, by its relentless foes ; and, after increasing losses 
and horrors, it found itself on the Beresina, assailed and 
almost surrounded by hostile forces. It passage of the 

ought to have been destroyed to the last Beresina, Nov. 

, . . 111 25-28, 1812. 

man ; but its remams were saved by the 

skill of its chief, and the terror his name still spread 

around; and, strewing its path with the dying and the 

dead, it gradually approached the still distant frontier. 



240 The Einpire to 18 ij. ch. xiii. 

^^ , At Smorgoni Napoleon gave the command 

Napoleon , . , , . , 

leaves the army to his brother-m-law, Murat, the new King 
Dec.5^'iTi2. of Naples, and hastened off to France to 
raise fresh levies — a step which has been 
very differently judged — and after he had gone, the dis- 
solution of the ruined array went on more rapidly, Con- 
^ . siderable reserves, which had come up, were 

Destruction ^ , '^' 

of the Grand involved in the fate of the survivors of Mos- 
cow ; and after plundering the magazines at 
Wilna, the thinned remnants of the once mighty host 
repassed the Niemen in little knots and bands, of which 
some were rallied behind the Vistula. More than 550,000 
men, including reserves, had entered Russia, and it is 
dout^tful if 50,000 of these were ever seen again with the 
eagles. 

The causes of this tremendous ruin, the 
on this prelude to Napoleon's fall, may be indicated 

trophe. '^^ 3- ^^^ words. Something may be ascribed 

to the bad composition in every respect of 
the Grand Army, and something to the effects of the 
cold ; and the conduct of Barclay, after Smolensko, and 
of Kutusoff, during the retreat, was able. The constancy, 
too, of the Russians was great; and the burning of 
Moscow certainly had immense, and possibly decisive, 
results in depriving the invaders of winter quarters. 
Napoleon may also have shown a want of his usual 
energy at Maroslavetz, and perhaps on one or two other 
occasions ; he probably ought not to have left his army ; 
and his manoeuvres to overwhelm his ene- 

Causes of •> t •> • 

the ruin of mics failed, though marked by his accus- 
tomed skill. The paramount cause, of the 
disaster, however, was that Napoleon's system of daring 
invasion was adopted on an extravagant scale, and was 
encountered, after some faulty operations, by the Russian 



1 8 1 3* ^<^^^ ^f ■N'apoleon, 2 4I 

commanders in the fitting way ; the Grand Army per- 
ished from want, led on hundreds of miles in a barren 
country ; and, curiously enough, the very means which 
Napoleon employed, at the outset of the campaign, to se- 
cure its support only led to mischief, for its impedimenta 
paralyzed brilUant manoeuvres, which otherwise might 
have brought the war to an end. The example of Welling- 
ton at Torres Vedras contributed thus to this mighty over- 
throw ; but Napoleon was anything but the madman 
which he has been called by superficial critics ; and it is 
at least doubtful whether he would not have triumphed, 
had not Moscow been suddenly destroyed — a contin- 
gency on which no leader could reckon. He was a 
great commander in 181 2, as he was throughout his 
military career, though his over-confidence was more 
apparent then than it had been on previous occasions ; 
and, apart from the enterprise itself, undertaken in the 
pride of ambitious power, the chief mistake he probably 
made in the campaign was that of a politician, not of a 
chief of armies — the not disarming the Czar on the fron- 
tier by liberating the Polish racQ from its chains. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FALL OF NAPOLEON. 



Return of Na- 



After leaving the remains of the Grand 
Army — he had hoped that it would rally at poleonto 
Wilna — Napoleon returned to Paris in dis- 
guise through the frozen plains of Poland and Germany. 
The reception he met was very different from that which 
R 



242 Fall of Napoleon, ch. xiv. 

had greeted the warrior of 1799 ; and though the official 
noblesse of the Empire concealed their alarm by in- 
creased servility, France maintained that silence which 
is often ominous. An incident during his absence had 
revealed how really precarious was his Revolutionary 
^ throne ; an obscure republican of the name 

Conspiracy of '• 

Malet. of Malet had deceived persons in high 

places by the news of the Emperor's death ; and Na- 
poleon heard with amazement and anger that even the 
Bodies of the State had never thought of his infant son 
as his possible successor. To strengthen his dynasty, 
on paper at least, he declared the Empress Regent in 
the event of his death ; but graver matters soon en- 
grossed his thoughts. The Prussian Contingent in the 
Grand Army, having advanced only a short way into 
Courland, had made good its retreat comparatively in- 
tact ; and, on being apprized of the issue of the Cam- 
paign, its commander, York, openly revolted from the 
French, and went over with his men to the Russian 
camp. This defection proved the shock 
York, Dec. that lets the avalanche loose, and sets it 
°' ^ ^^' in motion to change the landscape. North- 

ern Germany rose as a man to arms ; the Prussian army 
. — it had been organized after Jena on that peculiar sys- 
tem of which we have seen the astonishing results ; and 
it was even now capable of large expansion, though, in 
deference to Napoleon's jealous will, reduced to a small 
standing force — compelled its ruler to declare war against 
France ; insurrections broke out in the Hanse towns ; 
and the heave of a great national stirring was seen in 
„. . . ^ Saxony and the States of the Confederation 

Rising of Ger- ^ 

many, Janu- of the Rhine, and even in Austria under 

1813. ' absolute rule. The Czar, who had followed 

the march of Kutusoff, encouraged this 



1813. Fall of Napoleon. 243 

universal movement ; and in the first months of 18 13 
the Russian and Prussian armies, seconded by a great 
wave of popular war, were sweeping over the North 
German plains, and effacing the signs of French domi- 
nation. Murat fled with the ranks of the 

„ 1 . . . , . Retreat of the 

Grand Army, givmg up the command to French, Feb- 
Eugene Beauharnais. the viceroy of the ^J^-^^^-^h' 
Itahan Kingdom ; and that chief, conduct- Nr'So°n 
ing the retreat with skill, and undismayed 
by the flood of enemies, made good with difficulty his 
way to the Elbe, though obliged to abandon the French 
garrisons in the fortresses on the Oder and Vistula. 

Napoleon heard this intelligence with scorn and 
wrath, and addressed himself to pluck safety from 
danger. He treated the rising of Germany „. .^ 
with contempt, as he had treated the rising merise pre- 

jp ^ . -i ■% • 1 1 ^ parations to 

01 bpam, warned his crowned vassals to repair his 
be on their guard against what he called ^°'^^""^«- 
a "Jacobin movement," and to have their contingents 
ready by the spring ; and wrote to his father-in-law, the 
Emperor of Austria, already hesitating in the French 
alliance, that he reckoned with confidence on Austrian 
aid. His real power, however, was of course in France ; 
and he strained his great faculties to the utmost to repair 
the disasters of 18 12, and to make preparations for a 
fresh struggle. The resources of France were still great ; 
she still lavished them to maintain her power, though 
cruelly stricken and discontented ; and by summoning old 
soldiers to the eagles, by making regular troops of the 
National Guards, and by anticipating the conscription 
of the succeeding year. Napoleon set on foot, in a few 
weeks, the enormous mass of half a million „ , 

rsad condi- 

of men, and even gave it military organi- tionofthe 
zation and form. These levies, however, levies. 



244 Fall of Napoleon. ch. xiv. 

though still bearing the honored name of the Grand 
Army, had little in common with .the band of Aus- 
terlitz ; every arm, especially cavalry, was weak ; and 
though under a great commander they were to show 
that they could gain battles, they formed a very imper- 
^ . ^ feet instrument of war. The Emperor took 

Campaign of i r i i • 

1813. the field in the last days of April, and m a 

short time the survivors of the awful retreat, drawing 
from the Elbe to the Elster and the Saale, had joined 
in Saxony the new legions which had, as it were, sprung 
from the earth at the bidding of their renowned master. 
By this time the Russian and Prussian armies had 
crossed the Upper Elbe and exposed themselves to the 
Emperor's blows, in the hope of gaining the support of 
the vassal South (ierman States ; and they fell on the 
French as they wer^e advancing on Leipsic, through the 
broad plains of Liitzen. The encounter was 
LUtzen, Stem, but skill prevailed ; and though the 

1813.^' success of the French was really trifling, 

the trained soldiers of the Allies were forced 
to retire before troops composed largely of young con- 
scripts. The star of Napoleon seemed now .to emerge 
in splendor again from passing clouds ; the subject Kings 
of Bavaria and Saxony made haste to put their contin- 
gents in his hand ; he entered Dresden in a few days in tri- 
umph ; and, as the Russians and Prussians continued to 
fall back, he pursued them to the verge of Silesia, and de- 
„ , ^ feated them in a great battle at Bautzen, one 

Battle of 

Baiitzen, of the most remarkable of his wonderful ex- 

isfj. ^°~^^* ploits. He had now approached the Oder and 
Success of Vistula, and had he prolonged this victorious 
Napoleon. march he would certainly have set his garri- 
sons free, and perhaps have crushed for a time the rising 
of Germany. He thought, however, that a delay of a few 



1 8 1 3 . Fall of Napoleon, 2 45 

weeks would greatly improve his unformed armies ; and 
confident that a decisive triumph would lay Armistice 
his enemies prostrate at his feet, he consen- of Pieis- 

,..;.- ^ ^ • twitz, June 

ted, Austria havmg mtervened, to an armis- 4, 1813. 
tice which, as events turned out, was a 
capital and striking political mistake. 

The negotiations that followed form a signal proof 
how ambition and pride may blind genius. Austria evi- 
dently at this moment held the balance between the 
belligerent Powers in Germany ; and though the Aus- 
trian Germans wished for war with France, the Cabinet 
of Vienna, after Liitzen and Bautzen, thought peace with 
Napoleon an essential object, and proposed ^^gtria 
terms which would have left him master of proposes 
France, Italy, Holland and Belgium, pro- Napoleon 
viding only for the independence of Ger- unwisely re- 
many, and the suppression of the Confede- J^'^*^^- 
ration of the Rhine. Napoleon, however, had no desire 
for peace ; he had established his armies along the 
Elbe in positions where he hoped to renew the glories 
of 1796 on a grander scale, and to defy even all Europe 
in arms, when his military strength should have been 
more developed ; and he refused to listen to the propo- 
sals of Austria, apparently indifferent to what her forces 
might be, to the disaffection of the Germans in his 
ranks, which had become manifest for some time, and 
to the national and angry rising already threatening on 
every side. In this state of things the Austrian Govern- 
ment, forgetting the old dislike of Prussia, and the 
recent ties that bound it to France, and yielding to im- 
perious public opinion, inclined gradually towards the 
Allies ; but no engagements were definitively formed, 
until events on a distant theatre of war determined a 
hitherto halting purpose. After Torres Vedras, Wei- 



246 Fall of Napoleon, ch. xiv. 

The sue- lington had fought with varying success in 

cesses of 

Wellington 1811 j but in the following year — his own 

decide" forces having been increased by Portu- 

Austriato gucsc levics made good soldiers by his 

Coalition. skilful hand, and drafts from Russia 

having weakened the French — he invaded Spain, win- 
ning a great battle at Salamanca upon the Tormes ; and 
though ultimately obliged to retreat, he liberated a con- 
siderable part of the Peninsula. In 1813 he dealt the 
decisive stroke ; advancing from Portugal with an army 
superior in numbers for the first time to its foes ; and 
„ , , aided by masses of Spanish levies, he 

Battle of ^ . ^ 

Vittoria, routed the French with great loss at Vitto- 

june 21, ^.^ _ ^^^ .^ ^ short time he had reached 

the Pyrenees, and stood on the verge of 
that mighty Empire which had seemed invulnerable a 

few months before. This splendid success 
driven decided Austria : she threw in her lot with 

from Spain. ^^ ^^^-^^ . ^^^ ^j^^ ^^^^ formidable Coali- 
tion she had ever yet encountered, encircled France, 
already worn-out and exhausted. 

Napoleon, it is unnecessary to say, made 
arms^glhist a fatal mistake in rejecting these terms; 
Napoleon. j^- j^^ Relieved that Austria was false, his con- 
duct was arrogant and over-confident. Hostilities began 
on August 10, on an immense circle from the Oder to 

the Elbe, and from the Bohemian range to 
and obj^ts the Baltic, the centre of operations being 
in the ^^ plains that form Saxony and the south 

contest. ^ •' 

of Prussia. Napoleon, as we have seen, had 
occupied the Elbe, and held its passages in great 
strength, throwing out secondary forces as far as the 
Elbe and Oder on either side ; and from this position he 
hoped to defeat his enemies, and repeat the dazzling 



1 8 1 3 . Fall of Napoleon. 247 

strokes by which he had ruined Wiirmser and Alvinzi 
in detail. The conditions, however, of the contest had 
changed ; it was more difficult to reach divided enemies 
in the broad space between the Oder and the Elbe, than 
in the narrow area between the Tyrol and the Adige • 
the allied commanders had learned the Emperor's 
game ; and, above all, the levies of the French were 
very inferior to the allied armies, composed largely of 
seasoned troops fired by a sentiment of na- 
tional hatred. The general plan of the Allies. 
Allies was to avoid Napoleon when he at- 
tacked in person, but to fall on his most distant lieute- 
nants, and gradually to converge on their dreaded 
adversary when his strength had been thoroughly im- 
paired ; and as even in numbers they were greatly su- 
perior, about 550,000 to 360,000 men, they justly calcu- 
lated on success at last. Their first movements, how- 
ever, were ill-designed, and gave Napoleon a brilliant 
victory which in previous campaigns might have proved 
decisive. In the absence of the Emperor, who had set 
off against the Prussians in Upper Silesia, the Austrians 
and Russians under Schwartzenberg moved through the 
Bohemian hills on Dresden ; but their ope- 
rations were uncertain and slow ; their great Dresden 
antagonist had time to return ; and they "^"s- ^7» 
were completely defeated in a pitched bat- 
tle, in which Moreau, who had joined their ranks, from 
animosity to the ruler of Erance, met a death unworthy 
of a French commander. 

Napoleon thought that he had now the Coalition in 
his power, but he was to be taught by a striking example 
how firm was the constancy of his present enemies. He 
despatched a force through the Bohemian passes to in- 
tercept the retreat of the Allies ; and, in the days of 



248 Fall of Napoleon, ch. xiv. 

Marengo and Rivoli, the manceuvre would probably 
have been successful. Either through his own over- 
confidence, however, or from errors in which his lieu- 
tenants fell, the detachment was too weak to make vic- 
tory certain ; and it was crushed at Culm by an attack 

of the Allies, who, instead of surrendering, 
K^3o[ iS' as had been expected, assailed the French 

with determined energy. This victory re- 
dressed the balance of fortune, and events followed 
which turned the scale. Adhering to their scheme, the 
Allies fell on the distant lieutenants of the Emperor ; 
one was defeated on the Katzbach in Silesia, another at 

Grossbeeren in Prussia, and a third with 
Kaubach^at ^ Crushing effect at Dennewitz ; and, instead 
Gross-beeren, ^£ being rent asunder by his blows, the firm 

arrays of the allied armies drew in gradu- 
ally their immense circle, and gathered upon their 
hemmed-in foes. Meanwhile the Grand Army was fear- 
fully diminished by losses in the field, disease, and 

want ; the Confederate Princes of the Rhine 

at Dennewitz, ^ . ^ ^ in , 

Aug. 23 to Sept. grew doubtiul, and gradually assumed 
^' ^ ^^' a menacing attitude ; the auxiliaries de- 

serted from the French in thousands, and vast masses 
of insurrectionary levies hung on the .skirts of the 
dwindling host, keeping up a ruinous and unceasing 
warfare. The time had come at last for more daring 
movements ; and Blucher, the vigorous chief of the 
Prussians, with Bernadotte — once a Marshal of France, 
but now transformed into a Swedish Prince — crossed the 
Elbe in the last days of September while Schwartzen- 
berg issued again from Bohemia, the object of the Allies 
being to meet at Leipsic and overwhelm their adversary. 
Napoleon, had his movfeients been free, might perhaps 
even yet have baffled his foes ; but he could not trust 



r8i3- Fall of Napoleon. 249 

his vassals in his rear ; and he was slowly but surely 
forced upon Leipsic, and compelled to fight at great dis- 
advantage. The first encounter took place ,, , , 

° ^ Great battles 

on October 16 ; and though the Allies were of Leipsic, Oct. 
at least 230,000 strong and the French not ^ ^ ^ >i ^3- 
more than 1 50,000, the terror inspired by the Emperor 
was such that the battle had no decisive result. By the 
1 8th, however, great reinforcements had poured in to 
support the Allies ; the Saxon contingent abandoned 
the French on the field of battle, and fiercely attacked 
them ; and, after a desperate conflict, the Grand Army, 
which fought magnificently when brought to bay, was 
gradually compelled to leave Leipsic. The destruction 
of the single bridge on the Elster, on the line of retreat, 
caused frightful confusion ; a large part of the French 
army was cut off ; and the victor of many fields was 
driven to the Rhine, leaving his garrisons on the Oder 
and Vistula to their fate. A gleam of success shone 
feebly on the retiring host ; Bavaria had joined the 
Coalition, and Napoleon crushed a Bavarian force that 
had placed itself recklessly on his path ; but in the first 
days of November the allied standards, xhe French 
borne by the power of embattled Europe, driven to the 
lowered on the imperilled Empire from 
across the Rhine. 

Such had been the results of the campaign in Saxony ; 
and though the defections of the German troops, which 
contributed largely to the final issue, might silence those 
who have been lately holding up French piilitary honor 
to the scorn of Europe, Germany had been set free from 
foreign invasion, and her people had shown heroic pa- 
triotism. In other parts of the theatre of Defeats of the 
war, fortune had also turned against the italy!^ Wel- 
French Emperor. Austria had invaded F?£ce.^'^^^^ 



250 Fall of Napoleon. ch. xiv. 

Italy from the north ; Eugene Beauharnais had 
been beaten on the Adige ; and Wellington, after a 
vigorous conflict with Soult, one of the ablest of the Im- 
perial lieutenants, had descended on France from the 
Pyrenean frontier. Thus war gathered from all sides on 
the Empire, and the internal condition of that huge 
structure showed ominous signs of collapse and ruin. 
The Princes of the Confederation of the Rhine had be- 
fore this abandoned their master ; the Kingdom of West- 
phalia had already fallen ; and Holland, and even Bel- 
, r 1. gium, wasted by the conscription of the 

Revolt of the ° . •' ^ , 

allied and sub- Continental system, had either risen or 

i6cti states 

threatened revolt ; while far to the South, 
Murat — " a paladin in the field, and a fool in the closet," 
in Napoleon's phrase — was trafficking with Austria, to 
save Naples. In France, too, the late mistress of 
Europe, the state of affairs was extremely alarming, and 

everything portended approaching disaster. 

Desperate con- „ ^ „ . „ 1 •, , 

ditionofthe I013, followmg i8i2, and the devourmg 
Empire. years of the Spanish war, had consumed 

the military strength of the Nation ; and only the 
shadows remained of the proud legions which had once 
trampled on prostrate Europe. Even the material of 
war was wanting in old France ; it had been dissipated 
on a hundred fields, or transported to the Adige and 
the Elbe ; and the finances, once upheld by the spoils 
of conquest, had suddenly failed, and were wholly ex- 
hausted. Nor was the temper of the Nation such as 
could endure invasion or continued defeat ; its ardor 
of 1793 had died out; long wars and despotism had im- 
paired its energy ; and it was rather overwhelmed by 
the sense of misfortune, than resolved bravely to meet 
and subdue it. Though, too, the numerous classes and 
interests enriched by the Empire still clung to it, they 



1 813. Fall of Napoleon. 251 

secretly felt the general discontent ; and the very ser- 
vility of the instruments of power adding to the dangers 
arising from the instability of a Revolutionary State, and 
the mobility of the national character. 

Napoleon did not yield to despair, though Napoleon 
ruin seemed on all sides imminent. 'He a death-stmg- 
might at this juncture have obtained peace by 
ceding part of the frontier of the Rhine ; but he thought 
of little but a death-struggle. He gave orders to sum- 
mon to the field all Frenchmen who had served in the 
army, though he characteristically refused to appeal to 
the nation ; and, calculating that the Allies would not 
move till spring, he prepared to contend for __^. 

r o' re ^js prepara- 

the greater part of the Empire. The re- tions. 
mains of his forces were distributed along the immense 
front, from the Scheldt to the Adige, as he believed that 
he would have time to reinforce them ; and though he 
finally abandoned Spain, he resolved to strike for the 
whole Rhine and Italy. Had he been permitted to ma- 
ture his plans, it is dif^cult to say what the result might 
have been ; but the Coalition had been ^, .„. . 

The Allies m- 

taught not to repeat the errors of 1793; and vade France, 
the allied chiefs were in a very different 
mood from the Yorks and Brunswicks of a former day. 
Towards the close of December 1813 they set in motion 
their immense hosts ; and Bliicher and Schwartzenberg 
crossed the Rhine in two masses from Coblentz to Basle, 
while to the North Bernadotte invaded Belgium, and 
WelHngton, to the South, advanced to the Adour. This 
sudden and overwhelming invasion completely discon- 
certed Napoleon's projects, and for several weeks met 
no resistance on the theatre where it was most formida- 
ble. Driving before them some feeble French detach- 
ments, and masking, as it is called, the fortresses on 



252 Fall of Napoleon. CH. xiv. 

their way, Bliacher and Schwartzenberg soon passed the 
Vosges ; and by the middle of January, 1814, their con- 
verging armies reached the end of the vast plain which, 
watered by numerous streams, extends through Cham- 
pagne to the capital of France, from the western hills of 
Lorraine and Tranche Comt6. 
T^, .,., The military situation of the French Em- 

ine military •' 

situation of peror at this juncture appeared hopeless, 
seems hope- He had raised only a small part of the levies 
^^^* he had intended to collect; and he had 

probably not 2^0,000 men, including the remains of his 
Spanish armies, to oppose to the hosts of the Coalition, 
which numbered fully 500,000, supported by enormous 
reserves. His troops, too, were in part worn-out and 
demorahzed, and his lieutenants had lost their wonted 
confidence ; while the allied commanders were flushed 
with success, and their armies burned with fierce 
Prostratio national passions. France also seemed 
of France. without hope and prostrate ; and even the 
obsequious Bodies of State, and the new noblesse of the 
Revolution, had begun at last to show dangerous symp- 
_, . . toms of open insubordination and anger. 

Campaign of ^ '^ 

1814. Napoleon, however, did not despair, and 

prepared to encounter Bliicher and Schwartzenberg, 

though these leaders had more than 200,000 men, within 

easy reach of each other in Champagne, and he had 

Battles of hardly more than 70,000 in hand. His first 

Brienne and Operations were unfortunate : in a daring- 
La Rothiere, \^ , , ,.,,., ^ , 
Jan. 29, Feb. attempt to Separate the Allies, he fought an 

1, 1814. indecisive battle at Brienne, and was beaten 

with heavy loss at La Rothiere ; and had his antagonists 

followed up their success, or even acted with ordinary 

skill, they could have made the issue of the campaign 

certain. But Bliicher and Schwartzenberg had advanced 



1814. Fall of Napoleon. 253 

on divergent lines, and were alienated by mutual dis- 
like and jealousy ; and, accordingly, at this critical mo- 
ment they divided instead of uniting their forces, and 
began to march on Paris by distant roads, one along 
the Marne, the other along the Seine. The 
opportunity was not lost by the great war- interposes 
rior who stood in their path, and whose aiu^^^^^ *^^^ 
powers were never, perhaps, more evident 
than when in a position of this kind. Availing himself 
with consummate art of the obstacles formed by the 
double rivers, and leaving a detachment to hold 
Schwartzenberg in check. Napoleon, in the first days of 
February, marched against Bliicher, who had spread his 
forces along the Marne with careless confidence ; and 
the result was worthy of the General of 1796. Breaking 
in on the side of the Prussian army. Napoleon met its 
separate divisions, and multiplying his swift and terrible 
strokes, routed them one after the other in 

1-1 ^1 1 -^ir • •, n Battles of 

detail, at Champaubert, Montmirail, and Champaubert, 
Vauchamps ; and in less than a week the Vauchamps 
discomfited chief was driven, completely p"^ ^^is' 
beaten, on Chalons, with forces reduced to 1814. 
half their numbers. The Emperor now turned against 
his second enemy, descending from the Marne to the 
Seine ; and in a short time the army of Schwartzenberg, 
which had also pressed forward with little caution, was 
pierced through and compelled to retreat, after a double 
defeat at Montereau and Nangis. The losses of the 
Allies had been so great, that Schwartzenberg actually 
sought an armistice ; and at the close of February the 
invading host had fallen back to the positions in Cham- 
pagne, from which it had moved a month before. 

These operations rank justly among the Astonishing 
finest specimens of Napoleoq's skill, though poieon! ° 



254 ^dll of Napoleon. ch, xiv. 

made possible only by the errors of his foes. Nego- 
tiations were now set'^on foot, and had he abandoned 
Belgium and Italy, he might have preserved part of the 
revolutionary conquests ; but he refused, either from in- 
domitable pride, or confidence in his late extraordinary 
success. The Coalition resolved to continue the war ; 
and events on other parts of the theatre contributed 

largely to confirm their purpose. The arms 
AiLrin othe? of WelHngton progressed in Gascony ; Eu- 
theatre°*^ ^^ gene Beauharnais was being driven from 

Italy; and Murat, with the disloyalty of a 
revolutionary age, was actually preparing to march from 
Naples, and make common cause with the allied armies. 
It was, therefore, evident that the British commander 
would occupy a large part of the Imperial forces — the 
Army of Soult at this juncture was in fact superior to that 
of his master — and that a fresh attack would be made' 
from the east ; and it was thought impossible but that 
the allied armies would at last crush their still dreaded 
antagonist. Hostilities were resumed in the beginning 
of March ; and, in order to make success certain, Berna- 
dotte was directed to advance to the Meuse, Schwartzen- 
berg refusing otherwise to move; though united to 
Blijcher, he was still immensely superior to the French 

Emperor in force. Napoleon proceeded to 

Fresh forces ^ -r^, . i i • i 

raised against renew agamst Blucher his late manoeuvres ; 
Napoleon. ^^^ ^^ ^^^ nearly caught his stubborn foe, 
who, though daring to a fault, was wanting in skill, when 
Blijcher was saved by the surrender of Soissons, and 
having joined the vanguard of Bernadotte, was able to 
offer battle in preponderating strength. Napoleon was 
compelled to recross the Asine, after a bloody and dis- 
BattleofLaon, astrous action at Laon; and having thus 
^%^t ^"'^' '■ ^^^^^^ ^° defeat Blucher, he thought himself 



1 8 1 4- -^<3!// of Napoleon. 255 

unequal to assail Schwartzenberg ; and threatened 
with destruction by their, uniting armies, he formed 
a resolution which, though fatal in the event, was 
worthy of kis art as a military scheme ;■ and, in other 
times, might have proved successful. Considerable 
forces were locked up in the fortresses on the Meuse and 
the Moselle — those on the Oder and Vistula had been 
lost — and the Emperor determined to fall Napoleon fills 
back on Lorraine, to add these garrisons to ^^pk on Lor- 

^ , raine, to rally 

his army in the field, and then, descending his garrisons, 

, - , . ^ . ^ f. ^ and strike the 

on the rear of his foes, with a force stronger rear of the 
than he had yet possessed, to oblige them to ■^*'^^^- 
fight in a position in which a single defeat might prove 
as ruinous as that of Melas had been at Marengo. He 
broke up from the Aube towards the end of March, after 
a short conflict with the enemy on his way ; and, con- 
cealing the movement by a screen of horse, his columns 
sought the roads to the Moselle. 

This march of Napoleon would have certainly made 
the Allies pause, on ordinary occasions, and might have 
exposed them to his strokes ; but though Bliicher and 
Schwartzenberg had suffered heavily, the Coalition held 
firmly together, and national passions in- 
- spired its armies. At a council of war held march on^^^ 
on March 24th, it was resolved to disregard ^^^j^' March 
the Emperor's movement, and to make a 
great effort to bring the war to a close, by marching 
directly on the capital. The condition of France, and 
of Paris itself, concurred to favor this bold design. The 
Nation, utterly exhausted by war, had become wearied 
of the Imperial rule ; the distress of most of the great 
towns had caused the royalist and republican parties, 
long silent, to raise again their heads ; and in the capital, 
the centre of thought and opinion, Napoleon's tottering 



256 Fall of Napoleon. ch. xiv. 

throne was mined by intrigue. A sentiment had spread 

that could peace be obtained, and the interests of the 

Revolution be saved, the Emperor ought to be made a 

sacrifice ; and it had made way among the aristocracy of 

wealth, which had worshipped Napoleon in the day of 

State of opinion succcss, among the Bodies of State, which, 

in the capital, j^ ^-j^jg manner, avenged themselves for the 

slights of power, and among the masses of a thoughtless 

populace demoralized by the events of the last twenty 

years. Thus everything led the Allies to believe that the 

fate of Paris would prove decisive ; and their great armies 

were set in motion, converging upon the defenceless 

capital, which for so long a time had been the ardent 

focus of trouble, disturbance, glory, and empire. Driving 

before them a few weak bodies of troops which attempted 

in vain to retard their advance, they had soon reached 

the hills overlooking Paris ; and after a brief but sharp 

Capitulation of struggle the city surrendered on March 30. 

Paris, March The hopes of the Allies were soon verified : 

^°' ^ ^^' on an assurance that the rights which had 

grown up since the Revolution would be guaranteed, the 

once humble and flattering Senate declared the' Crown 

of Napoleon forfeited ; the example was followed by the 

different Bodies which represented the Nation or the 

State ; and, as in the presence of the hosts 

Napoleon de- r -r^ ,i •, • i-.-, , 

throned, the Of Jburope, no Other choice could have been 
Sored."'"' '^" accepted, the Bourbon Monarchy was re- 
established in the person of the Count of 
Provenge, the second brother of Louis XVI. Some in- 
terested demonstrations of joy were made ; but though the 
Nation, on the whole, acquiesced, and changed the Em- 
pire with the same suddenness with which it had changed 
the extinct Republic, it felt intensely the humiliation of 
defeat, and received the Bourbons without sympathy; 



1814. Fall of Napoleon. 257 

nor did thousands forget the name of Napoleon, even 
when, under the stress of crushing disaster, it was widely- 
denounced as the symbol of ruin. 
While these memorable events were occur- 

1 T- T 1 1 -I • 1 Napoleon 

rmg, the Emperor had pursued his march hastily retraces 
eastwards ; but on the news of the allied ^^ ^^^^^' 
movement, he retraced hastily his steps through Cham- 
paigne. He arrived at Fontainebleau, with about 70,000 
men, as the capitulation was being signed; and for a 
moment he formed the desperate design of falling on the 
Allies, who had divided their forces negligently upon the 
Seine, in the confidence of assured success. His lieu- 
tenants, however, protested against an attempt which 
might have destroyed Paris, even though, as he insisted 
to the last, it was promising from a military point of view ; 
and one of them, Marmont, having, without their know- 
ledge, placed his divisions in the power of the Allies, the 
conqueror's sword fell broken from his hand, and he was 
left defenceless in the midst of his enemies. 
In a few days he abdicated the throne ; and A^rir4,'^i8i4!^' 
the fallen Lord of five-sixths of Europe, de- 
serted by those whom he had raised to greatness, though 
his soldiery clung with devotion to their chief, was left to 
muse, unheeded and alone, on the instability of human 
things, and the punishment of unbridled pride and am- 
bition. The small island of Elba had been given him in 
exchange for the Empire he had lost ; and, after a touch- 
ing farewell to the veterans of his Guard — the Tenth 
Legion of the modern Caesar — he set off for his insigni- 
ficant realm, the populace of the maritime towns having 
more than once beset him, on his way, with execrations 
which made him feel the misery caused by the Continental 
system. Thus fell from the loftiest height of grandeur 
attained by man in the modern world, that mighty pro- 
s 



258 Fall of Napoleon, ch. xiv. 

duct of the French Revolution — the Lucifer, as he has 
been called with some truth, of the gigantic strife of the 

first part of the century. Those who regard 
N5)oieon^'^'^ ° Napolcon as a mere tyrant, destructive, cruel, 

inhuman, selfish, see only a very small part 
of his character, and pervert it by this imperfect estimate. 
Many as were his faults and, we may say, his crimes, this 
wonderful being conferred benefits on France which she 
has not forgotten ; and if his despotism was an evil from 
the first, and contained the germs of future disaster, and 
if his ambition was always perilous, his government was 
able and moderate for a time, and even his blood-stained 
career of conquest was not without good results in Eu- 
rope. His fall is the old tale of the terrible effects on 
the conduct of men of unbounded power; and the po- 
tentate who, after the Treaty of Tilsit, set himself to 
oppose the laws of nature, invaded Spain with perfidious 
insolence, plunged into the frozen deserts of Russia with 
Europe conspiring on his homeward path, and preferred 
to challenge the world to arms to the surrender of a 
worthless ascendency, seems a different person from the 
Bonaparte of Luneville and the author of the Concordat 
and the Code. For the rest, if Napoleon had few scruples, 
and was pitiless in carrying out his aims, this may be 
accounted for, in some measure, by the moral confusion 
of the France of his time ; and if he made self the centre 
of his hopes, he associated self with national greatness. 
As a General he created modern war; and though his 
passionate and daring imagination made him over-con- 
fident as a military chief, and his strategy of invasion 
was not always safe, he stands pre-eminent as a leader 
of armies, was a master of his art in all its departments, 
and was wholly unrivalled in those great combinations 
which form the highest problems of military science. 



1 8 1 4- F'all of Napoleon. 259 

His greatest fault as a politician was the contempt of na- 
tional feelings and instincts, which led him into innume- 
rable mistakes ; nor did he, perhaps, give proof of the 
gifts which distinguish statesmen of the first order ; but 
he had good reason to despise and distrust the popular 
movements of the France of his youth; and he possessed 
in the very highest degree the faculty of administration, 
and even of government. Let it be added, too, that per- 
haps his despotism was inevitable in the existing condi- 
tion of France, that for years it was the glory of French- 
men, and that, to this day, it has been, in part, justified 
by the noble institutions and great measures, with which 
History will always connect it. The offspring of the 
Revolution and yet its controller. Napoleon stands on 
the tracts of the Past, the most prominent figure of a 
wonderful age ; and the shadow of the great name along 
the path of Time seems to blight the pretensions of rulers 
alien to his own race in the land he swayed. 

In the readiness of France to throw off „ . . 

Reflections 

Napoleon we see a fresh proof of the na- on his fall, 
tional character ; and the manner in which 
French officials of State and dignitaries of every kind 
abandoned the master to whom they owed everything, 
stands in marked contrast to the steadfast loyalty of 
Austrian and Prussian nobles to their Kings after such 
calamities as Jena and Austerlitz, and to the constancy 
of the Allies in 1813-14. Before, however, we censure 
Frenchmen generally, all the circumstances must be 
taken into account, and condemnation must be largely 
qualified. After making efforts such as never, perhaps, 
have been made by a European State, France was 
utterly broken down when the invasion came ; and in 
this condition of affairs we can hardly feel surprise that 
she deserted a Sovereign who, at the moment, appeared 



2 6o Fall of Napoleon. ch. xiv. 

the existing cause of her sufferings and whose chief 
title to her obedience was success. As for the conduct 
of the marshals and ministers who forsook Napoleon in 
the hour of misfortune, it was such as has more than 
once been seen in the case of a mere noblesse of func- 
tionaries, the new-made instruments of new-made power, 
and without the traditions, and the sense of honor, that 
distinguish an aristocracy worthy of the name. Apart, 
however, from the national temperament, the inevitable 
result of the Revolution was to weaken in France every 
tie that binds the State and even society together.; and, 
accordingly, when ii was put to the proof, the authority 
of Napoleon suddenly collapsed, and could not bear the 
strain of disaster, the truest test of institutions and men. 
Still we must not imagine that all classes were indifferent 
to the fall of the Empire; the remains of the Army 
mourned their chief, and his name retained its spell in 
parts of the country. Nor can we ascribe to the Revo- 
lution alone the precarious nature of his unstable rule, 
for the Monarchy of the Bourbons was overthrown with 
greater facility than the Empire, and left, perhaps, 
fewer adherents behind. In fact, the corruption of the 
old order of things had blighted loyalty and faith in 
France before the events of 1789; and we must not 
ascribe the whole difficulty of establishing power in that 
country to the period of disorder that followed, though 
this has certainly been a principal cause. We must add, 
too, that it was not only those of new origin, and recent 
dignity, who betrayed Napoleon or fell away from him ; 
his imperial consort shook him off as lightly as she 
would have shaken off a disagreeable dream ; his dis- 
carded plebeian wife died of a broken heart " at the ruin 
of her Cid." 



i8i4' The Hundred Days. 261 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE HUNDRED DAYS AND WATERLOO. 

France, after the capitulation of Paris, was Pface of Paris, 

^ . May 30, 1814. 

at the mercy of the victorious CoaHtion. 
Owing, however, to the interposition of England, the 
conditions of peace were less onerous than the van- 
quished Nation might have expected ; though stripped 
of all her revolutionary conquests, she was left with her 
ancient boundaries intact, and if her influence was rela- 
tively lessened by the tendency of large to absorb small 
States, which had been one effect of the late disorder of 
Europe, she remained the France of Louis Congress of 
XVI. The Peace of Paris, as it was called, Vienna Sept., 

' ' 1 814, March, 

was followed by a Congress, to resettle the 1815. 
Continent, held at Vienna in the autumn of 1814; and 
at this great Council the Northern Powers exhibited an 
ambitious lust for dominion not unworthy of Napoleon 
himself. Russia threatened to swallow the whole of 
Poland ; and Prussia, not contented with the enormous 
spoil she had acquired by taking part alternately with 
France and the allied Power, aspired to annex a large 
part of Germany ; and their pretensions became so into- 
lerable that a fresh general war seemed for a while immi- 
nent. Meantime Louis XVIIL, the new King of France, 
had endeavored to consolidate his power ; but the diffi- 
culties in his way were, perhaps, invincible. ,, 

Unpopularity 

The Bourbon Monarchy was soon felt to of the Gov- 
represent national disaster and disgrace ; if l^^s^"xviii. 
France had eagerly grasped at peace, she 



262 The Hundred Days. ch. xv. 

quickly learned to dislike her position as a conquered 
Power not of the first class, and she charged on her 
rulers the bitter consequences of humiliation, subjuga- 
tion, and defeat. The government of the King, too, 
made several mistakes, and the associations which 
gathered round it contributed to excite alarm and suspi- 
cion. The old Imperial army was broken up, and de- 
prived of the far-famed Tricolor ; many of the new 
revolutionary interests were menaced, if not openly at- 
tacked ; invidious distinctions were drawn which dis- 
turbed the civil equality won in 1789 ; and plans were 
formed for changes which seemed to shake the in- 
numerable titles founded on the immense confiscations 
Conduct of the ^^ bygone years. The general feeling of 
emigres. ill-will was increased by the attitude and 

conduct of the surviving imigres who had 
returned with Louis from exile ; these representatives 
of a detested past, who, it was bitterly said, " could 
neither forget nor learn," talked loudly of restoring the 
feudal abuses, and of taking their own in due time ; 
and, high placed and caressed at court, they delighted 
to display towards the upstart noblesse of the " Corsican 
monster," as he was called, the refined insolence of an 
exclusive caste. The fine ladies of this worthy order 
of men were singularly skilful, as may be supposed, in 
this exhibition of the breeding of Versailles. 

The general result of this state of things was that, 
within a few months after his elevation to the throne, 
France became hostile to her new monarch, and, filled 
with sullen jealousy and discontent, began to hope wist- 
fully for some unknown change. The sentiment of irri- 
tation soon proved intense in the army still true to its 
mighty chief ; and it was shared by the whole class of 
younger officers, though the ennobled marshals of the 



i8i4- The Hundred Days. 263 

fallen Emperor felt or feigned respect for the restored 
dynasty. All this was not lost on the extraordinary man 
who, from his island speck in the Mediterranean, kept 
his eyes fixed on the state of Europe ; and by degrees 
Napoleon conceived the design of escaping 
from the kind of royal captivity in which he ieaves°Flba. 
had been lately placed. His preparations ^^- ^^' ^^y' 
were not long in being made, and on Feb- 
ruary 26, 181 5, he set off on the most daring enterprise 
which even his sanguine mind had* formed — that of re- 
covering his lost Empire in the face, as it seemed, of all 
Europe against him. A few hundred men of the Im- 
perial Guard, left about him incautiously by the Allies, 
accompanied the adventurer in a flotilla ; and it is but 
just to say that if his attempt was a breach of faith as 
regards Europe, it was hardly so as regards Louis 
XVIII., who had been intriguing against a still feared 
rival. On the ist of March the little expe- ^^ , 

. He lands in 

dition set foot on the shores of Provence, France, March 
not far from the spot where years before the ^' ^ ^^' 
youthful Bonaparte had returned from Egypt; and the 
strange apparition was soon welcomed with sentiments 
of exultation and joy, for the neighboring peasantry had 
not forgotten Jiow Marengo had freed them from foreign 
invasion. In a few hours the exile was 
threading his way through the defiles of SichrPaS 
Dauphiny, issuing on his path proclama- 
tions appealing to French patriotism ; and his march 
before long began to resemble the rapid spread of some 
mighty influence which, for the moment, nothing can 
resist. Regiment after regiment, sent to check his pro- 
gress, threw down their arms at the well-known sight of 
their loved and unforgotten commander ; and in a short 
time his insignificant band had gathered into a con- 



264 The Hundred Days. ch. xv. 

siderable force, which multiplied at every stage of his 
advance. He was at Grenoble on March 9, and by the 
loth had taken possession of Lyons ; and, as he moved 
onwards, hostile authority seemed to disappear and 
perish before him. The whole army was now in revolt ; 
and Ney, one of his most brilliant lieutenants, having 
been swept away in the general torrent, the Bourbon 
cause soon became desperate, and Louis XVIIL, fled 
across the frontier. On March 20 the restored exile was 
once more in his place at the Tuileries ; and, before a 
fortnight had passed, a faint show of royalist opposition 
had been quietly put down. Yet though in Napoleon's 
expressive phrase, " his eagle had flown from steeple to 
steeple with the Tricolor to the towers of Notre Dame," 
the Revolution which had reseated him on the throne 
was in the main the work of the army ; and if France, 
fascinated, as it were, at the sight, seemed to welcome 
her returning master again, she rather rejoiced that the 
Bourbons were gone than believed or even hoped that 
the Empire could live. 

Napoleon, upon regaining the throne, as- 
tures of Napo- sured the Great Powers of his desire for 
peace, and soon afterwards proceeded to 
offer a more liberal Constitution to France than she had 
possessed at any previous time, with a double Assem- 
bly, and guarantees for freedom. It is useless to inquire 
whether the Emperor was sincere ; but it is not surprising 
that he was not believed, and he was quickly undeceived 
even if he imagined that he could play the part of a 
The Allied " Napolcon of Peacc." At the intelligence 
Powers declare ^f j^^g return from Elba, the discords of the 

war, March 25, 

1815. Coalition ceased; and after proclaiming Na- 

poleon an outlaw, the Great Powers set their armies in 
motion to crush the usurper and invade France again. 



i8i5- The Hundred Days. 265 

Left thus to contend against Europe in arms, Napoleon 
tried to confront the approaching tempest ; and notwith- 
standing all that detractors have said, his efforts were 
great and worthy of him. He did not indeed, appeal to 
the Nation, true to the last to his despotic instincts, or 
revive the memories of 1793, and France was still much 
too worn-out to display the enthusiasm of that time ; but 
he effected all that ability could effect ; and if he ulti- 
mately failed, it was because the nature of the present 
contest had nothing in common with that in which the 
Convention triumphed. One fortunate cir- _ ^ 

*■ Great eiforts 

cumstance was in his favor; many thou- of Napoleon 

to restore 

sands of prisoners had returned home, and the French 
by making use of these old soldiers and ^^^^ 
turning to the best account the resources of France, he 
raised the French army from a state of im- Campaign 
potence to a force of not less than 600,000 ° ^ ^5- 
men, of whom 200,000 were ready for the field. Two 
strategetic combinations were now before Two plans 
him: he might either await the attack of ofopera- 

° _ ^ tions open 

the Allies around Paris, which he had has- to Napo- 
tily fortified, or he might suddenly assume 
the offensive, and, falling upon one of their separate 
masses, endeavor to divide and beat them in detail. 
Adhering to his usual system of war, he resolved to 
adopt the second plan ; and if possibly it was the less 
prudent, it was in some particulars extremely tempting. 
On the extreme end of the front of invasion on which 
the hosts of the Coalition would move, the ^^ 

He resolves 

two armies of Blucher and Wellington lay to attack 
encamped in Belgium from the Scheldt to and*^Wei- 
the Meuse ; and they were exposed to a ggp^ynj'" 
fierce and sudden attack, as they were ex- 
tended along the French frontier, and their supports were 



266 The Hundred Days. ch. xv. 

still on the Elbe and the Oder. It might be possible, 
thus, to assail and divide this detached wing of the hos- 
tile arrays, and to destroy successively its isolated parts ; 
and if a decisive victory were won, who could tell what 
the results would be ? And if the Emperor should be 
inferior in force, many a field of fame could attest that 
his genius had been able to turn the scales of fortune 
when placed in a position of this kind. 

In the second week of Tune the movement 

Concentra- 

tion of the began on which the Emperor had staked 
army on his destiny. The French divisions, their 

the frontier. movements concealed by false demonstra- 
tions with exquisite skill, drew together rapidly from 
Lille to Metz, while the Imperial Guard pressed forward 
from Paris, the Emperor's object being to combine his 
forces secretly and swoop on Belgium. Napoleon left 
the capital on June 12; and by the evening of the 14th 
his whole army, concentrated with extraordinary art, was 
collected on the edge of the French frontier, imme- 
diately around the banks of the Sambre. It numbered 
about 130,000 men; but though a sudden rising in La 
Vendee had deprived its chief of 20,000 more, and the 
united armies of Bliicher and Wellington were fully 
220,000 strong. Napoleon drew, from what he had al- 
It advances ready achieved, a hopeful augury of bril- 

on June 15, liant success. On the morning of the i i;th 
1815. * -' 

the march began, but though skilfully de- 
layed by a Prussian detachment, the French columns 
advanced rapidly ; and having passed the Sambre and 
seized Charleroi, made straight for the centre of the 
allied line, the great road from Namur to Brussels, 
which, as Napoleon calculated, was but weakly defended. 
The French army, before night had closed, lay between 
Gbsselies, Frasne, and Fleurus ; and if it had not got 



i8i5- The Hundred Days, 267 

quite so far as its leader had wished, it was even now in 
a most formidable position, within easy reach of the ad- 
vanced posts of its foes, not as yet concentrated in ade- 
quate strength. On the i6th the French advanced 
again ; and Bliicher, who, with his wonted 

J • J. r -1. • Battle of 

darmg, was eager to nght as soon as possi- Ligny, 
ble, offered battle to Napoleon near Ligny, ■^^^^ ^^' 
though his forces were not nearly collected, 
and Wellington had urged him not to run the risk. The 
engagement was one of the fiercest on record, each side 
contending with a national hatred ; but the skill of Na- 
poleon at last triumphed ; and the Prussian army, pierced 
through the centre, was driven with heavy loss from the 
field. Meanwhile Ney had attacked Wellington at 
Quatre Bras, a few miles to the left : but 
though the British chief could send no aid Quatre^ ° 
to Bliicher, he held Ney in check, and pre- ^^\ -^""^ 
served the Prussians from an attack on the 
flank designed by the Emperor, which would have made 
Ligny a second Jena. An accident, however, alone 
prevented this consummation from being otherwise 
attained. Ney had left a part of his forces in his rear ; 
and Napoleon having perceived from Ligny that his 
lieutenant was making but little progress, he ordered 
this division to advance and accomplish the task of Ney, 
and complete the defeat of Bliicher. Ney, however, 
severely pressed by Wellington, called this detachment 
to him at the critical moment ; and this misadventure 
probably had a decisive influence on the result of the 
campaign. 

These operations had given the French a 

, M,- .1 , T. • , , Result of 

brilliant triumph over the Prussians, had the opera- 
brought them upon the allied centre, and June 16. 
had prevented Bliicher and Wellington 



268 The Hundred Days. ch. xv. 

joining on what was their proper hne of junction, the 
before-named road from Naniur to Brussels. Still the. 
Prussian army had not been routed as the Emperor had 
had good reason to hope ; and the allied chiefs might 
yet find the means of uniting by activity and zeal, an 
event which might lead to Napoleon's ruin. The Em- 
peror, however, after Ligny, appears to have thought 
that, for some days at least, he had got rid of the de- 
feated Prussians, and that he would have ample time to 
turn against Wellington ; and this conclusion would 
probably have been entirely correct in his earlier cam- 
paigns. Events, however, were soon to show what the 
energy of the allied chiefs and the passions which sus- 
tained the Prussians could effect. The Prussian army, 
though beaten at Ligny, had not been in the least 
_, , cowed ; Bliicher had rallied it with heroic 

Blucher . , , , 

rallies the vigor ; and he had soon concentrated his 

and moves whole forccs, and made them ready for a 
Well^gton -"^^^ effort, in position only a few miles 
from Wellington. The British commander 
prepared to approach his colleague by a corresponding 
^ movement ; and thus, though forced from 

On a sec- ° 

ond line. the first line, the allied generals were not 

really divided, and were beginning to approach each 
other on a second. The French, meanwhile, had been 
allowed to halt, worn-out by continued marches and 
fighting, nor had the movement of the retiring Prussians 
been watched and followed with sufficient care; and, 
accordingly, when about mid-day on the 17th, Napoleon 
broke up to assail Wellington, he had no conception 
that the Prussian army was not far off, and was drawing 
towards the British. He left Quatre Bras with about 
72,000 men, having detached Grouchy with 

Movements • ' ' » ts ^ j 

of Napo- 34,000 to " observe the Prussians and com- 




1 815. - The Hundred Days 



plete their defeat;" but Wellington was l^^'^ and 

•^ ° . Weuington oa 

already falling back ; and by the evening June 17, 1815. 
he had taken a position bJeyoad^ the little village of 
Waterloo, resolved to>. accept battle on a pledge from 
Bliicher — who, at this time, had his whole army at 
Wavre, twelve miles away — that he would come up and 
assist the British. Meanwhile Grouchy, who had com- 
pletely lost sight of the Prussians, and even 

Miscalcula- 

of the* line of their march, and who, besides, tions of Na- 
like the Emperor, thought they could not p°^°"* 
yet venture to join Wellington, had advanced only a 
short way from Ligny ; and, ignorant what dispositions 
to make, had halted in the neighborhood of Gembloux, 
at a considerable distance in the rear of Napoleon, and 
separated from Bliicher by no small interval. 
By these arrangements it had been made „ 

,, 1 • 1 1 IT 1 . , -I Results of the 

all but certam that the allied armies would operations of 
unite at Waterloo in sufficient time to over- ■''^^"^ ^^" 
power the French ; and the chances were faint that 
Grouchy at Gembloux would be able to arrest the march 
of Bliicher. The Emperor, however, either still con- 
vinced that the Prussians were far away from the field, 
or that Grouchy possessed the means to stop them, 
thought only of bringing Wellington to bay ; and as 
Wellington had only 69,000 men, composed in part of 
second-rate troopsf and was very inferior in horse and 
guns, his adversary felt assured of victory. Napoleon 
wished to attack at daybreak on the i8th ; but the night 
and morning had been dense with rain, and he delayed 
the attack for several hours, in order to allow the ground 
to harden, and to give his manoeuvres more effect — a 
sure proof that he had no conception that Bliicher was 
already gathering on his flank. The battle began by 
an assault on Hougoumont, an advanced post on 



270 The Hundred Days. CH. xv. 

Great battle the British ris^ht ; but this was intended 

of Waterloo, ^ . ^ 1 . 

June 18, 1815. to be a femt ; and it was succeeded by a 
tremendous onslaught on Wellington's left and left 
centre, which met a brilliant and decisive repulse. 
Meanwhile Napoleon had been informed that about 
30,000 men of Bliicher's forces had advanced from 
Wavre, and were close at hand ; and, accordingly, at 
about mid-day he sent part of his reserve against this un- 
expected foe, though he still hoped it was a stray column 
which he would be able to hold in check. The plan of 
Napoleon's battle was thus much disturbed ; but he 
turned fiercely against the British centre ; and, after a 
series of furious attacks, the French became masters 
of La Haye Sainte, a farm-house in front of Welling- 
ton's line. The violence of their efforts now became 
intense ; the French calvary streamed up the slopes of 
Mont St. Jean, and fell desperately on the British po- 
sition ; but nothing could break the infantry of the de- 
fence, which in solid squares " seemed rooted to the 
earth ;" and after a succession of fruitless charges, the 
horsemen, who were unsupported by foot, were obliged, 
cruelly mutilated, to retreat. During all this time the 
Prussian detachment had been striking hardly at Na- 
poleon's right ; and this had given Wellington relief 
not sufficiently acknowledged by English writers ; but 
about seven this attack seemed spent ; and Napoleon 
seized the opportunity to make a last attempt against the 
British centre. The greater part of the Imperial Guard, 
the veterans of a hundred fields, marched resolutely to 
this fresh encounter ; but Wellington had skilfully 
strengthened his line ; and, after a short but terrible 
struggle, the Guard was repulsed and swayed slowly 
backward. It was now the turn of the British to advance ; 
and just at this moment the remaining masses of Bliicher 



1 815. The Himdred Days. 271 

appeared upon the field, and rending asunder the French 
right, converted defeat into a frightful rout. ^ ^ , ■ 

^ . ° Defeat and 

Except the Guard, which fought to the last, rout of the 
Napoleon's army became a mere chaos of ^^^'^ army. 
despairing fugitives pursued by the Prussians ; and 
only a fragment of the ruined host was ever seen in 
arms again. Grouchy, who had broken up from Gem- 
bloux late, and had refused, when urged, to approach 
Waterloo, only reached Wavre to find Bliicher gone, 
and merely detained 15,000 Prussians from the scene 
where the Empire had succumbed. 

Volumes have been written on this mem- 
orable struggle, yet the general facts are Sf camplign'! 
sufficiently plain. The first operations of 
the French Emperor were a masterpiece of military 
skill ; and the result was that, in spite of a very great 
preponderance of force, Bliicher and Wellington were 
in peril on June 16, and probably, but for a mere acci- 
dent, Ligny would have been an overwhelming defeat. 
The Emperor's movements after the i6th have been 
condemned by the worshippers of success ; but all that 
can be fairly said is that he sanctioned certain errors of 
detail, for which a commander-in-chief can be scarcely 
blamed, and that he made a single false calculation, 
fatal in the event, but extremely natural. The delays 
of the French on the 17th should be ascribed to the 
fatigues of the troops ; if the Prussians were not suffi- 
ciently watched, surely the fault lies mainly with the 
French staff ; and as for the supposition that Bliicher 
could not join Wellington for some days, Napoleon's 
views were warranted by his earlier campaigns, and had 
proved correct on similar occasions. It was in fact most 
unlikely that the defeated Prussians would be able to 
make a critical march and fight at Waterloo on June 



272 The Hundred Days. ch. xv. 

18 ; and that such a movement became possible was 
largely caused by a moral element — the passions that 
stirred the army of Bliicher. Nor did Napoleon neglect 
the Prussians ; he detached Grouchy to hold them in 
check ; and the conduct of his lieutenant was wretched, 
even if we may doubt that with 34,000 men he could 
have stopped Bliicher with 90,000. Napoleon was not 
a "mere shadow of his former self" in 181 5 ; and if 
he met ruin on the field of Waterloo, it was not because 
his powers had declined, but that — apart from the over- 
confidence which we see in this as in other campaigns — 
his antagonists supported each other better than any al- 
lied chiefs had ever done before, and especially that the 
Prussian army, sustained by a principle he undervalued, 
baffled reasoning, founded on experience, indeed, but 
fatally untrue in the actual contest. If this view be 
right, the defeat of Napoleon was largely due to his cha- 
racteristic contempt of some of the strongest feelings 
that animate man ; and the frequent errors of the politi- 
cian confounded the schemes of the military chief. As 
for the conduct of the allied commanders, it exposed 
them to danger at the outset ; and as Bliicher ought not 
to have fought at Ligny, it revealed at first the divided 
councils so often disastrous to allies. But all this was 
nobly repaired ; and the constancy of Wellington on the 
field of Waterloo, and the heroism of Bliicher in over- 
coming defeat, are fine specimens of great qualities. 
Yet though Waterloo was a splendid triumph, the fame 
of Wellington does not rest on the campaign of 181 5 as 
a whole ; his real title to renown depends on the ad- 
mirable sagacity with which he perceived the weak point 
in Napoleon's strategy, and illustrated a discovery, big 
with great results, by his memorable defence of Torres 
Vedras. 



i8i5« The Hundred Days. 273 

Napoleon abdicated after the rout of ^ , . 

'- Conclusion. 

Waterloo, the French Chambers, already- 
hostile, rising against him in the hour of disaster ; and 
before long he was on his way to the last scene of his 
eventful history, the solitary island of St. Helena. France, 
trodden under foot by the allied hosts, accepted the Bour- 
bons in 181 5, as she had accepted them the year before; 
but though Louis XVIII. was a sagacious ruler, such a 
dynasty could not become permanent. A sudden heave 
of the revolutionary forces which, though long quiescent, 
retained life, deprived Charles X. of his crown ; and a 
Constitutional Monarchy was set up in his stead, in favor 
of the son of the Duke of Orleans, the Royal Jacobin 
of 1793. This government, of which the chief feature 
was a corrupt and weak parliamentary system, met the 
fate of its immediate foreriinner, and it was followed by 
a short-lived Republic, which, after agitating Europe in 
1848, perished unlajnented in 1851. Long before this 
time the great name of Napoleon had regained its magi- 
cal power in France, and the nephew of the departed 
conqueror, a grandson of the divorced Josephine, was 
raised to the throne as Emperor of the French, assuming 
the title of Napoleon III. The Second Empire was a 
feeble image of the first, without the military genius of 
its chief; and it disappeared in the great war of 1870, in 
which Prussia, heading a united Germany, more than 
avenged the disaster of Jena, and has torn from France 
Alsace and Lorraine, spared in 1814 and 181 5. A pro- 
visional Republic has been since in power, its history 
marked by a national defence as gallant as that of 1793, 
but less noticed because a failure, and by a terrific out- 
break of Jacobin frenzy which awed Europe in 1871 ; but 
this settlement is felt to be only for a time ; and France 
remains torn by revolutionary troubles kept under only 

T 



2 74 ^^^^ Hundred Days. ch. xv. 

by the power of the sword in the hands of a soldier brave 
indeed, but not a chief of the first order. The general 
results of these events, which all run up to 1789-1815, 
are that Government in France is never secure, and that 
the nation appears to have lost some essential elements 
of general welfare ; and though the great convulsion of 
the last century is not the only, it certainly is a principal 
cause of this evil disorder. If the material progress of 
France, too, since the fall of Feudalism has been im- 
mense, there has been no corresponding moral improve- 
ment ; and if, within the memory of living man, she 
swayed Europe from the Tagus to the Baltic, her military 
reverses have since that time been awful, and the Tri- 
color has been plucked down from Metz and Strasburg, 
which once floated on Madrid and Moscow. The conse- 
quences of the Revolution outside France, have been, on 
the whole, more fruitful of good ; they have tended to 
civilization and national progress, but they have been 
accompanied all over Europe by frightful wars and 
general disturbance ; and we see the evils in the prodi- 
gious armaments and fierce animosities of the Continent, 
and in the disregard of the rights of the weak, and the 
ignoble flattery of force and success, too characteristic 
of modern politics. ' We end as we began ; it is at least 
doubtful whether the mischief done by the French Revo- 
lution does not preponderate over its benefits. The 
greatest of English historians remarked, a few years 
before 1789, that the era of wars seemed about to close, 
and that Europe would be for all time secure from the 
barbarism of the savage hordes which had overturned 
Imperial Rome. What would Gibbon have said had he 
lived to witness Borodino, Leipsic, Waterloo, Sedan, and 
the atrocities of the Reign of Terror, and of the Com- 
mune of Paris in 187 1 ! 



APPENDIX. 



AN ABRIDGED BIBLIOCxRAPHY 

OF THE 

FRENCH REVOLUTION. 



BY ANDREW D. WHITE. 



Among the things which most astonished Arthur 
Young, as he looked upon the first stir of the French 
Revolution, he notes, especially, the flood of Revolution- 
ary literature issuing from the press. 

From that day to this that stream has continued — 
growing less in breadth, but greater in depth, until its 
volume is enormous. 

In all this great current four phases may be clearly 
distinguished. 

The first of these includes the works of the Philoso- 
phers of the Eighteenth Century, and the whole mass of 
writings by those interested in the Revolution, down to 
the overthrow of the Triumvirate in 1794. The main 
characteristic of this literature, of whatever tendency, 
is clearness of conviction and earnestness of purpose. 
From Voltaire defending Calas, to Marat clamorous for 

275 



276 Appendix. 

Lafayette's head, it is a militant literature — ^looking back- 
ward to some principles and forward to some policy. 

In all this period there is little attempt at writing trea- 
tises strictly historical. The first series of the history by 
Deux Amis de la Uberte, and that by Rabaut are the 
only histories of importance, and these are thoroughly 
tinged by the earnest spirit of the time. 

The second phase extends from the downfall of the 
Triumvirate to the death of Louis XVIIL in 1824. This 
is the first reaction, — the period of hopes crushed, of il- 
lusions lost, of grudges to be fed, of disgust taking refuge 
in luxury and ceremony and cynicism ; and by this the 
literature of the times is thoroughly tainted. There is no 
historian of the Revolution during this period who 
reaches the first rank, and few who reach the second. 
Lacretelle and Montgaillard are the best the time affords. 

The third phase extends from the accession of Charles 
X. in 1824, — through the Revolution of 1830, — to the 
Revolution of 1848. This is the time of reaction against 
reaction ; dislike of the monarchy has revived, justice 
begins to be done to many Revolutionists, and, often, 
more than justice. Disappointed old statesmen and 
ambitious young politicians see that here is a current 
which may carry them to power, — that deification of the 
military genius of Hoche, or Moreau, or Bonaparte, is 
the best means of bringing contempt on the memory of 
Louis XVIIL, who could not mount on horseback, — that 
deification of the patriotic devotion of Lafayette, and 
Bailly, and Condorcet, is the best means of bringing 
contempt on Charles X., who is the incarnation of dynas- 
tic views as opposed to patriotic, — that deification of the 
patriotic enthusiasm of Mirabeau, and Vergniaud, and 
Danton, is the best means of bringing contempt on 
Louis Philippe, who is cold and shrewd,— and, finally. 



Appendix. 277 

that by glorifying the strength, and stir, and triumphs, 
and disasters of the Revolution, they can best bring con- 
tempt upon the common-place hum-drum Bourbon and 
Orleans Restoration. 

Therefore, this is by far the richest period in brilliant 
histories, and among their authors are such as Mignet, 
Thiers, Guizot, Louis Blanc, Michelet, Henri Martin 
Barante, and Quinet. In almost all these there is a 
tendency to pamphleteering ; party spirit runs high, and 
the roots of parties strike down into the Revolution, still 
every one of these men has too much regard for the 
position of a historian to sink into the mere party attor- 
ney. Whatever partizanship there may be is generally 
compensated by a clearness in drawing and vigor in 
color, which enables us to get at the truth all the better. 

The next phase extends from the Revolution of 1848 
to the present day. It is not the time of great histories. 
There has been a surfeit of glowing pictures and dra- 
matic effects ; new men have taken pens ; the old party 
struggles have comparatively little personal bearing ; it 
is the period of close study of particular events and in- 
dividuals, of revision of judgments made in anger or 
enthusiasm, of search for exactness and fairness ; and 
of the writers who best represent the historical research 
of this period are such as De Tocqueville, Mortimer 
Ternaux, Janet, Lanfrey and Von Sybel. 

Of course, these phases are not absolutely defined divi- 
sions. There are many cross-currents of thought, and 
many counter-currents ; there appeared some cool, in- 
triguing writings in the hottest period of the Revolution, 
and some filled with a true enthusiasm during the Restora- 
tion ; treatises aiming at judicial fairness appeared before 
^848, and treatises brilliant in party advocacy have 
appeared since ; but the whole body of historical litera- 



278 Appendix. 

ture of the Revolution is unquestionably divided, as has 
been stated. 

The following bibliographical sketch has been prepared 
to give useful hints to those who seek profit or pleasure 
in studying a period which a very thoughtful writer has 
pronounced " the best worth studying since the Crusades." 
This sketch may be thought, by some, to omit too much ; 
to such I would say that my aim is to give a practical aid, 
not an exhaustive treatise. Some may think that this 
sketch includes too much ; to such, when I say that my 
own collection alone, of works relating to the Revolution, 
numbers more than six thousand titles, it will, perhaps, 
appear that less than the present number was hardly to 
be expected. 

The period treated has been narrowed to its smallest 
limits, beginning at the events immediately leading to 
the calling of the States-General, and ending with the 
Consulate. 

The historical works named are 'mainly those of recog- 
nized value. 

As to Memoirs, but few have been named. A student 
who reads any of the standard histories will find in them 
the best clews to this part of the Revolution Literature. 

As to newspapers, I have given a small selection of the 
most influential. The names of others can be found in 
Hatin or Gallois. 

As to rare or curious works, only those have been 
named which throw especial light into leading events and 
tendencies. 

Cornell University, Feb., iSys- 



Appendix. , 279 



I. GENERAL HISTORICAL WORKS. 

Alison, Sir Archibald. History of .Europe. (First 
Series, 1789 to 181 5. Second Series, 181 5 to 1852.) 
The American edition, though wretchedly inferior to the 
English in paper and print, is worth more to the American 
reader on account of the valuable notes upon Alison's treat- 
ment of American questions. 

This work presents everything from the High Tory point of 
view ; but is as judicially fair as it can be under such circum- 
stances. It is full in matter, honest in treatment, and in the 
main, clear in style. 

A student who has not access to Arthur Young's travels, and 
the leading memoirs, will find the summary in the first volume 
well worth reading. The later parts have also a considerable 
value, at times, from the direct acquaintance of the author with 
so many men and events of the period studied. 

Blanc, Louis. Hist, de la Revolution Fran^aise. 

Paris. 12 vols., 8vo. The introduction and a portion 

of the first part have been translated and republished 

in the United States. 

The introduction covers much ground, and is very brilliant 
at times in its treatment of events which even very remotely 
helped to bring on the Revolution. 

The study of details in the history itself is very careful, but 
their presentation as a whole is none the less readable. The 
studies of character, especially in the days of the Triumvirate, 
are admirable. No other writer has, for example, given so 
striking a portrait of Robespierre. Despite its socialistic bias 
it is the most fascinating history of the Revolution, save Car- 
lyle's. The account of the downfall of Robespierre and his 
associates, is, doubtless, what its author claims it to be — the 
most complete in existence. 

Brewer, Rev. Dr., of Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Po- 
litical, Social, and Literary History of France brought 
down to the rniddle of the Year 1 871. J-opd. i2nio. 



28o , Appendix. 

A sort of lift for the lazy ; and, as such, perhaps, not without 
its uses. Its main design, as hinted in the preface, is to aid 
candidates for the military, civil service, and Oxford local ex- 
aminations. It would be of use to any student in reviewing 
extended courses of reading in French histoiy. But it is too 
much of the potted meat and desiccated vegetable sort for good 
mental digestion under ordinary circumstances. 

BUCHEZ AND Roux. Histoire Parlementaire de la Revo- 
lution Fran^aise, ou Journal des Assemblees Nation- 
ales depuis 1789, jusqu'en, 181 5. 40 vols., Z\q. 
This is not only a good narration of events, but is the most 
important by far among the collections of historical materials 
for the Revolutionary history. It gives the proceedings of the 
Assemblies, Societies and Clubs, with copious extracts from their 
discussions, the doings, regular and irregular, of the Commune 
and the Tribunal, and keeps the student in the current of the 
times by large citations from newspapers, pamphlets, reports, 
etc. 

Carlyle, while jeering at its generalizations, gives it very 
high praise as a mass of skillfully arranged material. 

Carlyle, Thomas. History of the French Revolution. 

(Various forms and editions.) 

A prose poem, full of its author's merits and defects, — ^pro- 
bably his most brilliant work, — not just, not complete, — yet 
some of his judgments seem inspired, and many of his pictures 
are marvellous. As, for example, the death of Louis XV., and 
the flight of Louis XVI. to Varennes. The characteristic vice 
of Carlyle is seen in his ill-treatment of such men as Bailly and 
Lafayette, and in the glory given Mirabeau and Danton. 

CoNNY, Vicomte Felix de. Hist, de la Revolution de 

France. Paris, 1834. 14 vols., i2mo. 

A mass of reactionary matter, without the earnestness of De 
Maistre and Gaume, or the piquancy of Veuillot. 

Des Odoards, Fantin. Abrege Chronologique de la 
Revolution de France, \ 1' usage des tcoles publiques. 
Paris, 1802. 3 vols., i2mo. 

The best thing about this book is the motto on the title page, 
from Tacitus: " Mihi Galba, Otho, Vitellius nee beneficio, nee 
injuria cogniti." The author appears a goodish man, but the 
book is poor. As a sample of his largeness of view, we may 
take the expressiqrj of his belief that Robespierre and the rest 



Appendix. 281 

mingled gunpowder in wine to work up their satellites to the 
pitch of fury required for the massacres of September. 

Montgaillard's history, on the same general plan, is infinitely 
better. 

Deux Amis de la Liberte. Histoire de la Revolution 
de France. Paris, 1792. 20 vols., i8mo. (Including 
index.) 

Carlyle says : " It is, perhaps, worth all the others, and offers 
(at least till 1 792, after which it becomes convulsive, semi- 
fatuous, in the remaining dozen volumes), the best, correctest, 
most picturesque narration yet published." Carlyle's distinction 
between the first and I'ast series is abundantly accounted for by 
their difference in authorship. Kerverseau and Clavelin only 
wrote the first part. It has all the merits and surprisingly few 
of the defects of a history of such a time written by men deeply 
interested in the events. Alison cites largely from it. Many 
others quote without acknowledgment. 

DuRUY. Histoire de France. Paris, 1858. 2 vols., 

i2mo. 

Of "all the short summaries of French history, this is probably 
the best. Duruy was a faithful professor, and one of the best 
ministers of public instruction that France ever had. His tragic 
struggle with the Church for the improvement of education in 
France, is too little known. The book is rendered especially 
valuable by beautiful historical maps of France at various im- 
portant periods, and by engravings illustrating the progress of 
French art, and especially of architecture. The history is given 
not only by periods, but by topics. The view taken is wisely 
liberal. 

Gaume, Mgr. La Revolution Fran^aise. 4 vols., 8vo. 
Being part of " La Revolution, R6cherches Historiques 
sur Vorigine et la Propagation du Mai en Europe, 
depuis la Renaissance Jusgu" d nos yours i" Paris, 
1856. 12 vols. 

Mgr. Gaume is one of the leaders in the French Hierarchy, 
and this book is mainly a tirade against the Renaissance. The 
author is crazed, almost, against classical learning and education, 
believing it the great cause of the evils of modern society, and 
especially of the Reformation and French Revolution. 

He lays especial stress on the fact that the Triumvirate were 
classically educated, and that Madame Roland read Plutarch 
at the age of nine years, and Tacitus afterwards; that Camilla 



^82 Appendix. 

Desmoulins knew nothing but antiquity, and that the paper 
money bore portraits of Brutus, Cato and Publicola ; and of 
course he finds plentiful confirmation of his view in the uni- 
versal adoption of antique modes and phrases during the Revo- 
lution.' 

It cannot be denied that the book possesses much ability ; 
but with an American, it will pass simply for a curiosity of 
literature. 

GONCOURT. E. and J. Histoire de la Socieie FraiiQaise 
pendant la Revolution. Paris, 1864. i vol. 3d Ed. 
A rapid journalistic sort of account of daily life, during the 

Revolution. It dwells rather too much on the vile side. 

Granier " de Cassagnac " A. Histoire des causes de la 
Revolution Fran(jaise. Bruxelles, 1851. 2 vols. i2mo. 
One of several reactionary treatises by an author whose 
tongue, pen and duelling pistols, have been for forty years at 
the service of slavery in the colonies, and despotism in France. 
The depth of his thinking can be gauged in his statement: 
that '* in the first years of Louis XVI., there was in public affairs 
no cause of trouble, and in men's minds no germs of sedition," 
and that " the excessive and inopportune reforms of that 
prince, gave public opinion its first impulse." No one can seri- 
ously consider him an authority on a subject which tasked the 
ripest years of De Tocqueville. 

Janet, Paul — Philosophie de la Revolution Fran(?aise. 

Paris, 1874. 8vo. 

A discussion, in an excellent spirit, of the various leading 
views of the Revolution, — with the conclusion so necessary of 
enforcement in France, that although the main aims of the 
Revolutionists were founded in right reason, the despotic 
methods of reaching them have proved and must always prove, 
a curse to the nation. After so much screaming of parties at 
each other, this book affords grounds for hope that some large 
and quiet thinking will some time be done, 

JOMiNi, Le Lieutenant General. Histoire Critique et 
Militaire des Guerres de la Revolution. Bruxelles, 
1841. 4 vols. 8vo. 
The work universally acknowledged the best on the military 

operations of the Revolutionary Epoch. 

Lacombe, Paul. Petite Histoire du Peuple Frangois. 
Paris, 1872. I vol. i8mo. 



Appendix. 283 

A very thoughtful little book, giving the, development of the 
evils which the Revolution swept away. It has one advantage 
for an American reader, over most French treatises, in that it ex- 
plains many of those things of which a knowledge is generally 
pre-supposed by writers for the French public. 

Lacretelle. Histoire de France, pendant le iSieme. 

Siecle. Paris, 1812. 6 vols. 8vo. 

This history was once regarded as a classic, but is now little 
read. The same may be said of other historical works by the 
same author. 

Lanfrey. Histoire de Napoleon. [Translated.] Paris, 

1870. 4 vols. i2mo. 

One of the greatest historical works of this century. Very 
severe in its treatment of Napoleon ; but its severity is that of a 
just judge charging against a prisoner whose guilt is clearly 
proven. 

Among the most interesting parts of the book, is the brief ac- 
count of the early life of Bonaparte, in Corsica ; and among the 
most valuable, is the exhibition of his almost supernatural dupli- 
city previous to the treaties of Campo Fomiio and Tolentino. 
Nothing could be more convincing than the comparison made 
by Lanfrey between the letters to the Directory on the one 
hand, and to the Venetian Senate, and the Papal court on 
the other. The sketches of his false bargain with Prussia, 
and his dalliance with Russia, are well done; but per- 
haps best of all is the unravelling of his monster intrigue in 
Spain, and the exhibition of the uprising of the Spanish pea- 
santry. 

Lavallee, Th6ophile. Histoire des Fran^ais, Paris, 

1865. 4 vols. i2mo. 

Volume 4 is devoted to the Revolution, and is a fair sum- 
mary. 

Leo, Dr. Heinrich. Geschichte der Franzosichen Re- 
volution. Halle, 1842. I vol., 8vo. 
This is a slice from Leo's " Weltgeschichte," and, like that, is 
characterized by fullness of knowledge and vigor in presenta- 
tion ; but all is subordinated to North German pietistic conser- 
vatism. 

Histoire de France \ I'usage de la Jeunesse. A. 

M. D. G. * * ^. 6ieme. Edition, Lyons, 1820. 2 
vols., i8mo. 



284 Appendix. 

This is the famous history of France written by Father Lori- 
quet of the Society of Jesus, and prepared,. as the A. M. D. G. 
* * ■* indicates, for the glory of God and the inculcation of 
what was considered, at the Restoration, as " sound knowledge." 
Its purpose was to put safe views into the youthful mind of 
France regarding French history in general, but especially re- 
garding the Revolutionary and Napoleonic period. In the 
final table of contents, the name of Napoleon is carefully left 
out of the list of French sovereigns, and Louis XVII. follows 
closely upon Louis XVI. Five small pages contain the history 
of the Empire down to the Spanish catastrophe ; and at the 
■ close of the history of the Empire, the downfall of Napoleon is 
compared with that of Nero. 

For a very characteristic touch, see Vol. II., page 242, notCy 
oi> the fate of the relics of Saint Genevieve in the hands of the 
sans- culottes. It was this work which Prince Napoleon quoted 
with such bitterness against the Ultramontane party in the 
French Senate, when they claimed to be supporters of the 
Second Empire. But it is only fair to say that the book has 
been made- to appear much worse than it is. Father Loriquet 
has successfully defended himself against the charge .of having 
represented Napoleon as simply " Le Marquis Bonaparte Gene- 
ral des armees du Roi," — a calumny which at one time it was 
republican orthodoxy in France to believe and spread. 

Martin, Henri, Histoire de France. Paris, 1867. 

16 vols., 8vo. 

There is an American translation in four octavo volumes, 
covering the period from Louis XIII. to the Revolution. The 
last two of these volumes are most directly important for the 
student of the French Revolution. Public sentiment seems to 
have settled down upon Martin's History as the most useful of 
the extended works on French History in the large. 

MiCHELET, J. Histoire de la Revolution Frangaise. 

Paris, 1847. 7 vols., 8vo., (translated). 

Pictures of the Revolution from a democratic point of view, — 
sometimes with miraculous exactness iii lines and coloring,— 
sometimes wildly fantastic, yet always on a groundwork of solid 
knowledge of men and events. The praise won by Michelet 
from John Stuart Mill, would of itself raise a very strong pre- 
sumption against those who choose to call him a declaimer. 

MiGNET, F. A. Histoire de la Revolution Frantjaise. 
Paris, 1836. 2 vols. English translation in one small 
volume, published in Bohn's series. 



Appendix. 285 

Thorough enough for the general student, thoughtful, just, 
clear in style, compact in matter ; the best, by far, of all the 
short histories. Cariyle confesses this, while he scolds that 
Mignet "jingles and jumbles a quantity of mere abstractions and 
dead logical formulas and calls it thinking," — ^by which is meant 
simply that Mignet believes in the desirability of Constitutional 
Liberty, and gives honor to Statesmanship rather than brute 
force, and presents the result of calm and wise thinking rather 
than philosophical pyrotechny. 

MoNTGAiLLARD. Histoirc dc France, ou Revue Chro- 
nologique depuis la premiere convocation des Nota- 
bles jusqu' au depart des troupes 6trangeres, 1787- 
1818. Paris, 1823. 8vo. 

A very valuable chronological summary, giving the events 
day by day as above, with tables of statistics short and to the 
point, when needed. Its prejudices, which are strong, do little 
harm in a book of its kind, which is used mainly to get the bear- 
ings of facts upon each other by their relations in time, — very 
little more harm than geographical relations presented in an 
atlas made by a strong partisan. 

QuiNET, Edgar. La Revolution. Paris, i860. 2 vols., 

8vo. [6th Edition.] 

Takes up suggestive thoughts and discourses upon them ; and 
is especially good in going to the bottom of various charges that 
have been made against the Revolution. It is evidently the re- 
sult of a reaction against the melodramatic method, and is an 
earnest attempt to get at truth somewhat in the style of De Toc- 
queville. 

Very interesting are the copious original contributions from 
the unedited memoirs of Baudot, of which perhaps the most 
interesting is his account, in the chapter on the Festival of the 
Supreme Being, of the jealousy of Robespierre which Baudot 
heard and saw among Robespierre's immediate followers in the 
procession on that occasion. Only one account of Robespierre's 
downfall is more suggestive of thought, and that is the simple, 
unvarnished record in the Moniteur. 

Rabaut, J. P. Precis Historique de la Revolution Fran- 
(jaise. Assemblee Constituante. Suivi de Reflexions 
politiques sur les circonstances. Septieme edition. 
Paris, 1819. i8mo. 
The historical part is interesting as the view of a man who 

enjoyed a very great reputation during the first years of the Re- 



286 Appendix. 

volution, who sought to humor the popular will, but to restrain 
it from atrocities, and whose life was sacrificed to it at last. 

But by far the most interesting part is the " Reflexions poli- 
iiques" These reflections are in sixty-three statements, often 
pungent, and always valuable as showing the faith in an ap- 
proaching political millenium, among strong men of affairs at 
that period. Some are almost pathetic to us, who look back 
upon all the intervening disappointments and miseries. Of these 
No. LX. is a type, in which Rabaut joyfully declares, that now 
that kings have ceased to excite nations against each other, and 
" nations are sedentary," their hatred will cease. And this was 
just before the convention, twenty years of bloodshed, and the 
addition of two new dynasties to the plagues of France. 

Sybel, H. Von. History of the French Revolution. 

(Trans.) London, 1861. 4 vols., 8vo. 

Thorough and careful. Von S. had access to masses of ma- 
terial, in the Continental Archives, untouched by the earlier his- 
torians ; and these throw new light upon the dealings of the 
other powers with France, during the Revolution. Various im- 
portant questions are handled well, even when but little space is 
given them, as for example, financial expedients upon which 
most French historians simply declaim. 

Thiers, A. Histoire de la Revolution Frangaise. Paris, 

1827. 10 vols., 8vo. (And a multitude of Editions in 

various modern languages since.) 

The most successful history of the Revolution ever written. 
In spite of the character of its first volumes which have much 
of the political pamphlet about them, and a frequent looseness 
of statement, they hardly deserve all the bitter censures passed 
by Croker. 

The first part derived a fictitious value, without doubt, from 
the fact that its pictures of the opening glories of the Revolution 
were not only drawn by a skilful hand, but came at exactly the 
right time in the tide of reaction against the Bourbons. 

The latter part, relating to the period of the Thermidorians, 
Directory, &c., is really far more valuable, for in this Thiers' 
wonderful skill in intrigue, enables him to find and follow clews 
which would be lost by most historians. 

This latter part is written, mainly, in accordance with his noted 
essay on the writing of history, in his " avertissement " at the 
beginning of the twelfth volume of his History of the Consulate 
and Empire, but nothing can be further from it than the first 
part. 



Appendix. 287 



II. SPECIAL AND COLLATERAL TREATISES. 

Adolphus, John. History of England from the Acces- 
sion to the Decease of King George the Third. Lon- 
don, 1840. 7 vols., 8vo. 

The view of affairs in France is worth little, but the view of 
affairs in England,- as influenced by the Revolution in France, 
is, in spite of prejudices, of much practical value. 

Barante, a. G. p. Histoire de la Convention Nationale. 

Paris, 1 85 1. 6 vols., 8vo. Histoire du Directoire. 

Paris, 1855. 3 vols., 8vo. 

Ponderous works by a statesman and scholar; valuable for 
reference, worthy of all respect for accuracy and judicial fair- 
ness. 

Batbie, M. Turgot, — Philosophe, Economiste et Ad- 

ministrateur. Paris, 1866. 8vo. 

A life of the great statesman who proposed the only means 
which could arrest the Revolution ; by a living statesman fitted 
by study and experience to understand his subject. Among 
other things from which American statesmen can learn much, 
this volume presents with care Turgot's views on paper money, 
— views, which had they been adopted would have been nearly 
as valuable to the Revolution as would have been the views on 
general reforms, to the old monarchy, had not they also been re- 
jected. 

Berriat Saint Prix. La Justice Revolutionnaire. 

2ieme edition. Paris, 1870. 

An exceedingly valuable contribution, embittered though the 
author is at times. Aided by some of the foremost lawyers of 
the provinces, he has ransacked the archives at Paris, and in the 
departments, for materials bearing upon the administration of 
justice during the Revolutionary period. Its spirit is best re- 
vealed in his citation from Louis Blanc, " It is false that the 
Reign of Terror saved France. On the contrary we can affirm 
that it broke down the Revolution." 

A good example of his thoroughness in hunting down a lie 
may be found in vol. I, pp. 80-91, where he proves that, horrible 
as the noyades were, the story repeated by such a multitude of 
historians, regarding " les mariages republicains^'' is pure fiction. 



288 Appendix. 

Blanqui, J. A. Histoire de I'Economie Politique. Paris, 

1845. 2 vols., i2mo. (Third edition.) 

Chapter 37 of the second volume is devoted to the economical 
doctrines of the French Revolution, As a rapid summary it has 
a certain value ; but the student vi^ho is thorough enough to con- 
sult the book at all, will probably be disappointed by its want of 
fulhiess. 

Brunet, Charles. Marat. Notice sur sa vie et ses ouv- 

rages. Paris, 1862. i2mo. 

Mainly bibliographical ; but the last chapter on "False Ma- 
rats," as well as sundry other parts of the book, bring out the fact 
of Marat's popularity in a very suggestive way. 

Buckle, Henrv Thomas. History of Civilization in 

England. N. Y., 1858. 2 vols. 

The part directly bearing upon the French Revolution is com- 
prised in chapters 8-14, vol. i, and whatever may be said of 
other parts, it can hardly be denied that these chapters form an 
epoch in the writing of history. If but one thing be read on the 
events introducing the Revolution, this should be that one thing. 

The part of Chapter XII. showing the influence of English 
thought on French, is one of the marvels of thoughtful research. 
It probably marks the limits of the application of the positive 
method to History in this age. 
Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution of 

France. London, 1790. 

A work abounding in shrewd judgments, brilliant pictures, 
bitter denunciations and striking prophecies ; the work of a great 
statesman and thinker, yet always so one-sided, and at times, so 
outrageously unjust, that Buckle has thought it only to be ex- 
plained on the hypothesis that Burke had lost his reason. 

Burke's remarks on the formation of the States-General seem 
almost to justify Buckle's view. 

Carne, Comte Louis de. Etudes sur I'Histoire du Gov- 
ernment Representatif en France, de 1789 \ 1848. 
Paris, 1855. 2 vols., 8vo. 

A work somewhat heavy, and of what Carlyle would call the 
" rumbling " sort, but giving the ripe thoughts of a statesman. 
The author follows doch-inaire principles, but not blindly, and 
many important points are treated judicially. If, for example, a 
student wishes a well-weighed estimate of the Girondists, after 
Lamartine's deification and Louis Blanc's depreciation of them, 
he will find it in this book. 



Appendix. 289 

CoNDORCET, J. A,, Marquis de. Vie de Turgot, London, 
1786. 8vo. Also in his collected works. Paris, 1847, 
vol. 5. 

The shortest of the more important biographies of Turgot, and 
in some respects the best. Condorcet, by purity of character, 
thoroughness of knowledge, vigor in reasoning, and close per- 
sonal acquaintance with Turgot, was one of the few statesmen 
France has produced fitted to sketch such a career. The work 
is of peculiar value also, as throwing light on the ideas of Con- 
dorcet himself, whose life was one of the noblest, and whose 
death was one of the saddest in Revolutionary annals. 

Desmazes, Charles. Le Parlement de Paris. * ^ * 
Avec une Notice sur les autres Parlements de France. 
Paris, 1859. I vol., 8vo. 

The Parliament of Paris plays such a large part in the begin- 
ning of the Revolution that the student may wish to examine it 
closely. For this purpose there are many more ponderous works 
than this, but probably none more to the point. 

Despois, Eugene. Le Vandalisme Revolutionnaire. 

Fondations Litteraires, Scientifiques et artistiques de 

la Convention. Paris, 1868. i2mo. 

A pithy statement of the vigor in creating institutions shown 
by the National Convention. Its sketches of the various plans 
of education, and of such creations as the Polytechnic School, the 
Normal School, the Conservatory of Arts and Trades and others 
which experience has proved admirably fitted to the wants of 
the nation, are very valuable. This little book is an excellent 
antidote to the more unjust parts of Alison and Burke. 

DoNiOL, H. La Revolution et la Feodalite. Paris, 

1874. 8vo. 

A very thorough discussion of the social condition of France 
at the outbreak of the Revolution, of the good reforms which 
were attempted, and of some evil expedients which were 
adopted. 

Droz. Histoire du regne de Louis XVL pendant les 
annees on I'on pouvait prevoir ^t diriger la Revolu- 
tion FranQaise. 3 vols. 8vo, 18x39. 
Faithfully done, with a love of liberty, but with no attempt at 

mere dramatic effect. It gives a very careful summary of the 

various administrations which tried to hold the Revolution in 

check. 

U 



290 Appendix. 

DuLAURE, J. A. Histoire de Paris : Physique, Civile et 

Morale. Paris, 1859. ^ vols. 8vo. 

Contains a multitude of curious details, many of them of 
much use to a student not familiar with Parisian customs and lo- 
calities. 

DuvERGiER de Hauranne. Histoire du Gouvernement 
Parlementaire en France. Paris, 1859. 3 vols. ^vo. 
A heavy work, not likely to repay an American reader. 

Fleury, E. Babceuf et le Socialisme en 1796. Paris, 

1859. I vol. 

Of value to any one who wishes to study the Paris mob from 
the days of Henry III. to the recent doings of the Commune. . 

Fleury, Edouard. Elections aiix Etats Generaux en 

1789. Laon et Paris, 1869. i vol. 8vo. 

Very interesting to the careful student as exhibiting samples 
of the Cahiers de Doleances, and practical political expedients 
of various sorts. 

Gallois, Leonard. Histoire des Journaux et des Jour- 
nalistes de la Revolution Fran9aise, Paris, 1849. ^ 
vols. 8vo. 

Some of the lives — as those of Peltier and Marat — ^give ex- 
tracts of much value in exhibiting the bitterness of parties. 

Hatin, E. Histoire Politique et Litteraire de la presse 

en France. Paris, 1859. ^ vols., 8vo. 

The part devoted to the Revolution is very minute. It is in 
all respects the best work on the subject. 

KiNGSLEY, Charles. Three Lectures delivered at the 
Royal Institute on the Ancient Regime as it existed on 
the Continent before the French Revolution. Lond. 
1867. I vol. i2mo. 

An off-hand sort of treatise made up from a few leading au- 
thorities, and given with the author's well-known earnestness of 
purpose and ease of style. 

Lamartine, Alphonse de, Les Girondins. Various edi- 
tions and translations. 

A prose poem deifying the brilliant orators of the Gironde. A 
book which proves the profound truth of Goldwin Smith's ex- 
hortation, " Let us never glorify revolution." 



Appendix. 291 

Probably no work, save possibly Thiers' History, has done so 
much to make revolution chronic in France. If reason was 
given us for any useful purpose, this book is of no particular use 
to any American student. 

Lavergne, Leonce de. Les Assemblees ProvenQales, 
sous Louis XVI. Paris, 1863. 
A thorough and useful study. 

Lewes, G. H. Life of Maximilian Robespierre. Lond. 

1849. ^ voL i2mo. 

Although not to be compared with the same author's life of 
Gothe, it is spirited and well worth reading, as one of the first 
attempts to picture Robespierre as he was — neither making him 
out to be a demon or un grattd homme incompris. 

LoMENiE, Louis de. Beaumarchais and his Times. 
(English translation.) Lond. 1856. 4 vols. i2mo. 
His connection with the Court of Louis XV., his suit against 
Goezman, which did so much to upset the old French judicial 
system, his aid to our own Republic, in supplying arms to the 
armies of our war of the Revolution, his authorship of the 
" Mariage de Figaro," which did so much to undermine the 
French Monarchy and Aristocracy, and his career during the 
most stirring period of the Revolution, in relations both with the 
Democrats and Monarchists, make his life one of the most in- 
teresting in French history, and this book gives it reasonably 
well. 

Mackintosh, Sir James. Vindicics GalHccB. Defence 
of the French Revolution, and its English admirers 
against the accusations of the Right Hon. Edmund 
Burke ; including some strictures on the late produc- 
tion of M. De Calonne. Lond. 1791. i vol. 8yo. 
If any person finds time to read Burke, he ought to find time 
to read Mackintosh. A deep strong current of liberal thought 
sweeps through the book, which gave it great power in its day, 
and makes it still worth reading. 

Maron, Eugene. Histoire Litt6raire de la Revolution. 
I vol. i2mo. Paris, 1856. 

Has some few points of value, but is generally declamatory 
with the usual stock antitheses between Mirabeau and Sieyes, — 
Danton and Robespierre, etc. 

Morley, John. Rousseau, i vol. 8vo. London, 1873. 
Voltaire, i vol. 8vo. London. 1871. i vol. 8vo. 



292 Appendix. 

In these works the relations of the two leading thinkers of the 
1 8th century to the Revolution are brought out with great 
ability. There is none of the conventional suppression of truth 
in this book, which spoils so many English treatises touching 
upon the French deists of the last centuiy. 

Stael, Mad. de. Considerations sur les principaux, 
^venements de la Revolution Fran9aise. Paris, 1820. 
2 vols. 8vo. 3d Ed. (Various translations.) 
Interesting from the personal characteristics and experiences 

that enter into it, but warped by her admiration for her father, 

and by various prejudices. 

SouLAViE, J. L. Memoires Hist, et Polit. de France 
pendant le Regne de Louis XVI. 6 vols. 8vo. [Trans- 
lated]. 

The usual taint of prejudice and inaccuracy, which hangs 
about most French memoirs attaches to this, but it is full of 
valuable materials out of which the truth can be obtained. Its 
first volume evidently supplied much of the rough material 
which Carlyle worked into his master-piece, the picture of the 
last days of Louis XV. 

Students' History of France. 

The part given to the French Revolution is dry and one- 
sided. 

Ternaux, Mortimer. Histoire de la Terreur, 1792-4. 

d'apres des documents authentiques et inedits. Paris, 

1862. 7 vols., 8vo. 

The most complete and conscientious of all histories of the 
Reign of Terror. Highly praised by Von Sybel. 

TissOT, J. Turgot ; sa vie, son administration, ses ouv- 

rages. Paris, 1862. 8vo. 

An excellent study of the greatest French statesman of 
modern times, and none the less great because both the ancient 
regime and the Revolution utterly rejected his best ideas. 

Tocqueville, a. de. L'Ancien Regime et la Revolu- 
tion. (Translated.) i vol., 8vo. 

A work in which the labor and thought of many years are 
brought to bear on some fundamental points in Revolutionary 
history. There is much that is profound, but, in the midst of 
it, not a little that is fanciful, and over all a cloud of doubt and 
disappointment. Yet with all this it is one of the most valuable 
books on the Revolution ever produced 



Appendix. 2^3 

Viel-Castel, Horace de. Marie Antoinette et la 
Revolution Frangaise. Paris, 1859. i2mo. 
Contains materials of interest obtained from Austrian 

sources. Also, 

Les Travailleurs de Septembre, 1792. Paris, 

1862. 8vo. 

A careful research into the doings and motives of the leaders 

in the September massacres. 

Young, Arthur. Travels in France during the years 
1787-88-89. London, 1794. i vol., 4to. 2d Edition. 
One of the two or three most valuable books regarding the 
Revolutionary period. Young was a very intelligent country 
gentleman, who traveled, mainly, in the interest of agriculture; 
but his observations extended over a much wider range. At 
Versailles, for example, he dines in company with a number of 
the leaders of the States- General, and gives the^ conversation. 
He stops in coffee-houses in remote parts of France, hears 
the discussions, and notes the want of real ability in political 
matters arising from the lack of popular education; he talks 
with poor peasants on the roads, and enables us in a short con- 
versation to see more of the real misery of France than many 
historians can give in an elaborate volume. The causes which 
led to the Revolution become wonderfully clear as we go on 
with Young's most attractive narrative; and no one can fail to 
go with him in his occasional outbursts of indignation. These 
are all the more striking when his natural conservatism is con- 
sidered. The book in English is at present difficult to obtain. 
It ought to be reprinted. 

A Comparative Display of the Different Opinions 

of the most Distinguished British Writers on the Sub- 
ject of the French Revolution. London, 1793. 2 
vols., 8vo. 
The principal writers cited are Burke and Mackintosh. 



III. HISTORICAL ESSAYS AND LECTURES. 

Adams, Prof. Charles K. ** Democracy and Monarchy 

in France." N. Y., 1874. i vol. 

Ten lectures and essays upon the most important periods, 
questions and men of French history, from the first stir of Re- 



2Q4 Appendix. 

volutionary thought in the eighteenth century, down to the 
catastrophe of 1871. Apart from what seems a want of full 
appreciation of the work of the Constituent Assembly, and 
thorough discrimination between the Constitutions of 1791 ^i^d 
'93, it is masterly. 

Especially thoughtful are the chapters on " The Philosophers 
of the Revolution," " The Restoration," and the " Revolution 
of 1848." 

The chapters on the first and second N&poleonic periods give 
the very facts which are most difficult of access, and which a 
thinking man most wants to know. The Chapter on " The 
Ministry of Guizot," is one of the very few adequate judgments 
upon the work of that unfortunate statesman. 

BoNALD, M. de. Melanges Litteraires, Politiques et 
Philosophiques," etc. Paris, 1838. 2 vols., 8vo. 
Various short pieces, and especially the essay in Vol. 2, en- 
titled, " Observations sur I'ouvrage de Madame de Sta6l," are 
held in the highest esteem by the reactionary and clerical party 
in France, and are therefore, perhaps, worth the short time it 
takes to read them. 

Their spirit can be understood by the following passage : 
" Ce n'est pas de, la haine que les hommes eclaires ressentent 
pour la Revolution, c'est un profond mepris." 

Brougham, Lord. Historical Sketches of Statesmen 

who flourished in the Time of George the Third, 

London, 1843. 3 vols., 8vo. 

The third series contains, " Remarks on the French Revo- 
lution," which are valuable as the comments of a statesman 
who was associated intimately with men of that time, and who 
was not carried away by reaction. 

There are also essays on Robespierre, Dan ton, Desmoulins, 
St. Just, Sieyes, Fouche and others. — all having excellent 
points, as, for example that on Sieyes gives an account of 
Brougham's interview with him, and a very striking statement 
of views regarding him expressed to the author by Carnot and 
Talleyrand — so respectful as to prove a perfect antidote to the 
sneers of, Carlyle. 

Carlyle, Thomas. Essays. 

Especially noteworthy are those on Voltaire, Mirabeau, The 
Necklace Affair, the criticism on the Histoire Parlementaire, 
and, for an admirable bit of historical satire — his exposure of 
Barere's account of the sinking of the Vengeur. 



, Appendix. 295 

To all except the last the same remirks apply*as to his His- 
tory. 

Chateaubriand, F. A. de. Essai Historique sur les 

Revolutions Anciennes et Modernes. 

Utterly worthless from every point of view. The whole work 
is made up by forcing facts, ancient and modern, into historical 
parallels. His memoirs are valuable. 

Croker, J. W. Essays on the Early Period of the French 

Revolution. London, 1857. 8vo. 

Contains the most searching of all criticisms on Thiers. Se- 
veral interesting studies of important points in Revolutionary 
history are given, all of course from an ultra Conservative 
point of view. The study on the Guillotine is a strange piece 
of research — illustrated with curious wood-cuts, showing conclu- 
sively that the Revolutionary mode of decapitation was by no 
means a new thing. 

Macaulay, T. B. Essays (Various editions and dates.) 

The essay on Lord Mahon's " War of the Spanish Succession" 
gives some interesting details collateral to the history of France. 
That on Frederick the Great, in alluding to the defeat of the 
French at Rosbach, gives some statements and remarks as to the 
military decline of France just before the Revolution. In the 
essay on Dumont's Recollections of Mirabeau, he makes inci- 
dentally a sharp attack on some of Burke's positions which have 
been considered strongest ; and the essay on Barere is a search- 
ing review of the career of probably the vilest public man that 
the Revolution produced. 

Macgall, William. Foreign Biographies. London, 1873. 

2 vols., 8vo 

Contains readable biographical essays upon Joseph de Maistre, 
Paul Louis Courier, Saint-Martin, Cadoudal, Carnot, and others. 

Maistre, Joseph de. Considerations sur la France. 

Paris, 1786. 

The most important, probably, of all the French reactionary 
works ; vigorous and bold, while it is hopelessly in the wrong, 
as events since have shown. 

Reeve, Henry. Royal and Republican France. Lon- 
don, 1872. 2 vols. 8vo. 

Several essays of excellent workmanship. Reeve and Cro- 
ker probably know more of the nice points of the French Revo- 



296 Appendix. 

lutionary history than do any other Englishmen. The essay' 
on Mirabeau is, perhaps, best because it aims to give a just view, 
which, after the deification by Carlyle and the melo-dramatics 
of Thiers and Lamartine, is worth much. 

The essays on St, Simon and Marie Antoinette are valuable. 
The latter is presented from what Carlyle stigmatizes as the 
" Gustos Rotulorum point of view," which is probably liiuch 
nearer the enlightened view of posterity than is Carlyle's own. 

Sainte-Beuve. Causeries de Lundi. Paris, 1857. Va- 
rious series, several volumes. 

Scattered through this are sketches, always elaborate, and 
often pungent, of the various characters and events of the Revo- 
lutionary period. 

Smyth, William, Professor of Modern History at Cam- 
bridge. Lectures on the History of the French Revo- 
lution. Bohn, Lond., 1855. 2 vols., i2mo. 

An excellent series of studies of the main events in their 
order. There are also valuable chapters showing the cotempo- 
rary current of English thought. 

Stephen, Sir James. Lectures on the History of France. 

London, 1857. 2 vols., 8vo. 

The last half dozen lectures are very valuable as a general 
introduction to the study of the Revolution, but do not give suf- 
ficient details for an exact judgment. 

Thackeray. Paris Sketch Book. London. Various 

Editions. 

The essay giving recollections of Versailles is in Thackeray's 
best style ; and the sketch by his own hand of Louis XIV. goes 
into the vitals of the old regime. 



IV. MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

Bertrand de Molleville. Memoirs. Paris, various 

dates and editions. 

Worthy of special mention as containing probably the most 
absurd exhibition of the fatuity of the Court-party in the whole 
history of the Revolution. This was the " claque scheme," a 
plan to revive loyalty and put down republicanism by means of 
a hired corps of applauders. Full details of the scheme and its 
results are given. 



Appendix. 297 

Berville et BARRiiiRE. Collection des M^moires re- 
latives k la Revolution Fran9aise. Paris, 182 1. 68 
vols., 8vo. 
This collection contains nearly all the more valuable memoirs, 

such as those by Besenval, Campan, Weber, Georgel, Thibau- 

deau and others. 

Bonaparte Joseph. M^moires et Correspondence Poli- 
tiques et Militaires du Roi Joseph. Paris, 1855. 10 
vols. 
Interesting, especially as regards the Spanish difficulties, and 

the restiveness of Napoleon under his first real check. 

Crequi, Souvenirs de la Marquise de. Paris, 1834. 7 

vols., 8vo, 

Unfortunately, the witty Marquise left no memoirs, and this 
book, which at first seems so valuable, is a forgery throughout. 
It is a sample of a class of memoirs made up by speculators and 
attributed to noted personages, against which the student of 
French history needs to be especially upon his guard. 

Dangeau. Memoires. Paris, 1839. 4vols., 8vo. Trans- 
lated and condensed into i vol., 8vo. 
The easiest of reading, and while giving a relief to more 

severe studies, useful in letting the student into the daily life of 

the old monarchy. 

DuMONT. Souvenirs sur Mirabeau et sur les deux Pr^- 
miferes Assemblies Legislatives. Paris, 1832. 8vo. 
This work, though it throws much light upon the boldest man 

at the beginning of the Revolution, and upon the men and things 

about him, no longer retains the relative importance it held when 

Macaulay wrote his essay. 

GuizoT. Memoirs to Illustrate the History of my 

Time. London, 1858. 4 vols., 8vo. 

Worth reading, of course, but will probably disappoint every 
reader. Under the circumstances, it could hardly fail to de- 
generate into a piece of special pleading, and it produces the 
effect of a series of orations or sermons in which the personality 
of the orator is much more important than the events discussed. 

Mallet du Pan. Memoirs and Correspondence. Eng- 
lish translation. London, 1852. 

Mallet was a Swiss intriguer who put himself at the service of 
the Reaction. In carrying out those secret intrigues, he found 
out some things of use, and his revelations have a certain value. 



298 ' Appendix. 

Memoirs. 

The collection of Berville and Barriere is very large, but by 
no means complete. Besides these, those of Barere, Segur, 
Fauche-Borel, Malouet, Lafayette and others, are important; 
but the leading histories will best introduce the reader to them. 
The first part of those usually named in connection with the Na- 
poleonic period, often throws much light on the later period of 
the Revolution, Thus, Beugnot's Memoirs begin with the 
Necklace affair, and Dumas' with the War of American Inde- 
pendence. The space allotted to this appendix, forbids an ex- 
tended catalogue. 

Napoleon. Correspondence Publiee par Ordre de 
L'Empereur Napoleon III. Paris, 1858. — vols., 8vo. 
The first part throws great light on the period of the Directory. 

Their value will be appreciated by any one who sees ^the use 

made of them by Lanfrey. 

Robespierre, St. Just, Payan, et al., Papiers In6dits 
trouves chez Robespierre. Paris, 1828. 3 vols. 8vo. 
The introductory report by Courtois, is simply a ferocious ora- 
tion. The remainder is exceedingly important and interesting 
as showing the wheels within wheels during the government, by 
the Committee of Public Safety. Under the head " Guerin " will 
be found secret reports of Robespierre's spies, upon his intimate 
associates ; and some of them throw a flood of light over the 
spirit of the Reign of Terror. Thus, Vol. ist, Page 366, it is 
reported, " People noticed that Legendre showed icw^wz," -s^- * * 
and " spoke mysteriously " to a friend; and of Bourdon it is 
reported that, in the Convention, " He gaped while good news 
was announced." 

St. Simon. Memoirs. Translated and abridged, by 
Bayle St. John. London, 1857. 4 vols, post 8vo. 
No other writer has given so living a picture of the social 
condition which had its centre in the Courts of Louis XIV. and 
Louis XV. ; but the original generally frightens away readers 
by its length. This abridgement is well done, and brings the 
whole within the leisure of a short vacation. 

Veron, R. Memoires d'un Bourgeois de Paris. 5 vols. 

8vo. 1853. 

Veron was a bon-vivant, and man about town, and from the 
Restoration to the culmination of the second Empire, mingled 
with all ranks and parties, and had all persons worth knowing 
at his table. 



Appendix. 299 

V. NEWSPAPERS. 

CoNDORCET, Rabaud St. Etienne and others. Chron- 
ique de Paris, Paris, 1789-93, 9 vols. 4to. 
A moderate republican Journal advocating a federal system. 

Desmoulins, Camille. Le Vieux Cordelier. ~ --^^ 

For extracts from this very influential Dantonist newspaper — 
a paper conducted in what is in these days known as the " sen- 
sational style " — see memoirs of Desmoulins in Berville and 
Ban-ieres' collection. 

The Revolutions de France at de Brabant are also of im- 
portance. 

Hebert, Le Pfere Duchesne. Paris, 1791 — 93. 11 vols. 

8vo. 

Unutterably vile. The organ of a class never thoroughly un- 
derstood until the " Commune " of 1871. 

Lavaux, Rousseau, Th., and others. Journal de la 
Montagne, Paris, 1793 — 5. 7 vols. 4to. 
A newspaper thoroughly in the Jacobin interest. 

Mallet du Pan, and others. Le Mercure, 1772-92. 

Often cited, but of little value, as it expressed no convictions, 
but represented mainly personal interests and grudges; hence 
the reader in these days can never know what allowances or 
corrections to make. 

Marat. L'.Ami du Peuple. Paris, 1789 — 1793. 18 

vols, small 4to. 

The organ of Marat's blood-thirsty, policy. The most vivid 
descriptions of historians are poor compared with almost any 
number of this Journal, taken at random. 

Moniteur. 1789-— 1868. 

Although the publication of the Moniteur was not begun until 
after some of the most important of the early events of the Revo- 
lution, it must always remain the great repository of facts regard- 
ing the modern history of France. Any person who has access 
to it will find that even a few short studies upon it are of great 
value. Nothing can give more vividness to one's knowledge of 
the French Revolution than a rapid run over the issues on the 
two or three days succeeding the downfall of Robespierre. ~ 
There are brought together first the timid mention of Robes- 
pierre's arrest; then the vigorous denunciations by Billaud, Var- 
ennes, Tallien and Barere, — the account of the execution of 



300 Appendix. 

the Triumvirs, the long lists of those sent to the guillotine, in- 
cluding a large batch of aged widows, and, immediately follow- 
ing one of these, the list of plays at the various theatres for the 
same evening, followed by the burning of the paper money, &c,, 
&c., &c. 

MoNiTEUR, Analyse du. Paris, 1801. 5 vols., 4to. 

This is the key to the Moniteur, being the index by persons 
and subjects. 

Pelletier, Rivarol and others. Les Actes des Ap6tr6s. 

Paris, 1789-91. 10 vols., Bvo, 

A Royalist newspaper, full of wit. As an example of its 
comments the following will suffice : " Six months ago Louis 
was master of twenty-four millions of subjects, to-day he is the 
sole subject of twenty-four millions of kings." 

Prudhomme. Les Revolutions de Paris 1789-94. 17 vols, 

8vo. 

A vigorous democratic newspaper ; its editor well acquainted 
with events as they were developed. 

Robespierre. La Defenseur de la Constitution. 

Lasted but a short time during 1 792. Valuable, but with far 
less clearness and shrill force than his speeches. 



VI. ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL. 

Beaumarchais. La FoUe Journee ; ou le Mariage de 

Figaro. Paris, 1785. i vol., 8vo. 

This play is well worth rapid reading, in view of the ideas it 
stimulated, and the stir it made at the beginning of the Revolu- 
tion. 

Bulletin du Tribunal Criminel. Paris, 1793, 6 

vols., 4to. 

One of the most important though one of the rarest documents 
throwing light upon the proceedings of the terrible Tribunal. 
The mere reading of two or three of these trials, which are gen- 
erally very short, will greatly deepen the reality of the student's 
knowledge of the period, 

C * * *, Th6ophilanthropes, Manuel des. Paris, 1798. 

I vol., i2mo. 

This was the prayer-book of the sect of Deists which 
attempted to give a new religion to France, toward the close of 
the Revolution, but wdiich encountered the truth enunciated by 



Appendix. 301 

Thiers, that " the only altars that are not ridiculous are old 
altars." 

The book has, as its frontispiece, the picture of a priest in 
suitable robes, and contains prayers, hymns with music, cate- 
chism and all that was apparently necessary for establishing a 
new fonn of worship. 

Challamel, Augustin. " Histoire Musee de la Repub- 
lique FraiKjaise." 2 vols., 8vo. Paris, 1858. 
A very useful and amusing collection of Engravings of Revo- 
lutionary scenes, portraits, medals, caricatures, autographs, docu- 
ments in facsimile, paper money of various issues, &c., &c. 
The later editions are much more complete than the earlier ; no 
v/ork easily accessible gives a more living idea of the daily play 
of passions among the French people during the period which it 
treats. Every day philosophy, poetry, fun and blackguardism 
are faithfully reflected from it. 

Challamel, A. Les Fran<;ais sous La Revolution. 

I vol., 8vo. Paris, N. D. 

A review of well-drawn sketches of typical persons in the 
Revolution, useful in clearing up our knowledge of the period. 

Champfleury. Histoire des Faiences Patriotiques sous 
la Revolution. Deuxieme edition. Paris, 1867. i2mo.. 
Text of little value, but interspersed with a large number of 

engravings of the pottery of the period, which by its inscriptions 

and designs throw much light upon popular conceptions of men 

and events. 

Cheruel, a. Dictionnaire Historique des Institutions 
Moeurs et Coutumes de la France. Paris, 1855. 2 vols., 
i2mo. 
An exceedingly helpful little work to a student, in any period 

of French history, and especially in the Revolutionary period. 

Such articles- as " Feodalite," " Gabelle," " Parlement," 

" Taille," etc., though not exhaustive, carry one through the 

difficult points very satisfactorily. 

Collier, Admiral, Sir George. "France on the -Eve 
of the Great Revolution." i vol. London, 1865. 
Collier passed a little time in France in 1773, and has left 

some details, amusing, but of trifling value compared with those 

of Arthur Young; and of little interest compared with the 

sketches in Mercier's " Nouveau Paris." 

Constitutions BE France, 1 79 1- 1 830. Paris, 1830. i2mo. 



3^2 Appendix. 

One of many collections of the sort. For others more or less 
complete, see Challamel, Tableaux de la Revolution, and other 
similar works. Despite Burke and all who have since given us 
dilutions of him, the Constitution of 1791 is well worth study 
and the ultra radicalism of that of 1793, the ultra conservatism 
of that of 1795, and the singular expedients resorted to in those 
made afterward, render them worthy of attention. 

Dickens, Charles. A Tale of Two Cities. London 

Various editions. 

With many variations from exactness, it sketches in a striking 
way, some phases of society during the Revolution, as well as 
before it. 

Erckmann-Chatrian. 

Various historical novels, by these two writers ; several of them 
translated. These delightful works well deserve their great suc- 
cess They cover a period beginning with the confusion before 
the States-General in 1789, and continuing to the Plebiscite un- 
der Napoleon III. Not only is the couleur locale admirably pre- 
served, but the very spirit of those who took part in the events 
is reproduced. Very striking examples of this are seen in the 
pictures of the preparation of the Deputies for the States-Gene- 
ral, in the expression of feehng by soldiers in the army of the 
Republic, as compared with those in the armies of Napoleon 
and by the peasants who voted at the will of the leaders of the 
Second Empire. No more delightful and profitable relief from 
severe studies on the entire Revolutionary and Imperial periods 
can be imagined. 

GiLLRAY. Caricatures. London, i vol., large folio. 

There is also a second edition, in which the plates are good 
enough for the purposes of the historical student. The' most 
valuable, perhaps, of all things of the kind for exhibiting the 
feehngs of the English nation toward the French during the 
Revolution. All the plates are interesting and valuable, but 
those bearing upon the early part of the Napoleonic period are 
perhaps most so. Probably most important of all, as showing 
the culmination of English injustice toward the French Revolu- 
tion, is the one which glorifies the atrocious murder of the French 
envoys by the Austrian hussars at Rastadt. 

There is a volume sold separately, for obvious reasons, which 
has no great historical value. 

Lahure. Histoire Populaire de France. 4 vols., 4to. 
Paris, 1865. 
Text worth little, but the wood-cuts are of that spirited sort 



Appendix, 303 

wbich none but the French can make, and which throw much 
hght over the history. 

LiVRE Rouge or Red Book. Being a list of Secret 
Pensions paid out of the Public Treasury of France. 
London, 1790. i vol., 8vo. 

This is a translation of one edition of the famous Livre Rouge 
which, when brought into light, provoked such a bitter feeling 
against the old monarchy. This English edition contains notes 
such as are not to be found in the original French edition pre- 
. sented to the Assembly by Camus. These notes profess to show 
the reasons why the pensions were granted to various persons 
about the Court, and are full of the most biting satire. 

-Louis XVL Reflexions sur mes Entretiens avec M. 

Le Due De Vauguyon. Paris, 1851. i vol., 8vo. 

For a long time this was supposed to be a pious fraud like 
Dr. Gauden's Eikon Basilike ; but the argument now weighs 
altogether in favor of its authenticity. It shows Louis as a 
docile young man with a fair stock of very serviceable know- 
ledge and thought. 

Mercier* Le Nouveau Paris. Brunswick. 1800. 3 vols. 

i2mo. 

Often cited for the light it throws on every-day life in Paris, 
during the Revolution ; but it requires much knowledge of , 
events to make the proper allowance for prejudices and exag- 
gerations. 

Necker. Compte Rendu au Roi. Paris, 1781, i vol. 

4to. 

This was the first statement of French finances ever made clear 
to the nation. The Memoirs dwell at great length on the stir 
produced by it. It is a book easily found, and worth examining. 

SOREL, A. " Le Convent des Carmes, et le seminaire 
de St. Sulpice pendant la Terreur." Paris, 1864. 
i2mo. 
Of some value as showing the feeling of the Parisian mob, 

toward the clergy. 

Tableaux Historiques de la Revolution Fran- 

(?AISE. Paris, 1802. 3 -vols., folio. 

A large and precious collection of views, scenes, portraits and 
documents, beginning with the oath of the Tennis Court, and 
ending with the Concordat and kindred documents. 



304 . Appendix. 

There are sixty large and beautifully engraved portraits, of 
leaders of the Revolution, with accompanying sketches of more 
or less value, also the full text of each of the five constitu- 
tions of France, beginning with that of 179 1. 



VII.— MAPS. 

Alison's History of Europe. — The English edition has a 
valuable atlas with battle plans, &c. 

Croker's Essays. — Contains, as a frontispiece, a carefully 
studied plan of Revolutionary Paris, not encumbered with 
minor details. 

Duruy's Histoire de France. — Contains small, but very 
distinctly engraved maps showing variations in interior divi- 
sions and in frontiers, at various periods during the Revolution. 

Spruner's Historisch-Geographischer Atlas. — Contains 
maps showing old ecclesiastical divisions, and changes made 
under the " Civil Constitution of the Clergy " — also many other 
maps carefully drawn ; but its plans of Paris are almost too 
much confused with details of minor importance. 

Thiers' Histoire de la Revolution. The best Editions 
have an atlas admirable in all respects. 



VIII.— SKETCHES OF COURSES OF 
READING. 

A. 

1. Buckle. 

History of Civilization in England, Vol. I., Chapter VIII., to 
XIV. ; being the part on French history before the Revolution. 

2. MiGNET. 

History of the French Revolution, giving a rapid but thought- 
ful survey of the whole period. 

3. Adams, C. K. 

Democracy and Monarchy in France, which will give a rapid 



Appejidix. 305 

review of the history treated in the two books previously read, 
with an exhibition of its effects on French affairs since. 

And it would suggest much thought and give much vividness 
to the nairation to read : — 

Between i and 2, Arthur Young's Travels in France in 
1787 and 1789, or, as the book is difficult to obtain, Alison's 
introductory chapters, which give copious citations from Young. 

Between 2 and 3, Dickens'' Tale of Two Cities, Macaulaf s 
Essay on Mirabeau and Barlre, Carlyle''s History of the French 
Revolutio7t. This brief course will give a general history written 
by master hands, from the time of Louis > XIV. to the war be- 
tween France and Prussia in 187 1. 



B. 

\A More Extended Course?^ 

1. Buckle. 

History of Civilization in England ; Chapters 8 — 14 on the 
History of France before the Revolution. 

2. Arthur Young. 

Travels in France from 1787 to 1789, or introductory chap- 
ters of Alison's History of Europe. 

3. De Tocqueville, 
Ancient Regime and Revolution. 

4. MiGNET. 

History of the French Revolution. 

5. Sybel and Thiers. 

Selections bearing upon points where the reader desires a 
fuller discussion than that given by Mignet, 

6. Adams, C. K, 

Democracy and Monarchy in France. 

7. Lanfrey. 
History of Napoleon. 

8. Thiers' Consulate and Empire. 

Selections covering points upon which the reader wishes to 
see a judgment more favorable than that given by Lanfrey. 
V 



3o6 Appendix, 

For collateral reading the following may be named : 

Between i and 2, St. Simon's Memoirs, translated and 
abridged by Bayle St. John ; or, Dangeau's Memoirs. 

Between 3 and 4, Memoirs of Madame Campan and of 
BesenvaL 

Between 5 and 6, CarlyWs History of the French Revolu- 
tion. 

Between 6 and 7, Macaulaf s Essay on Bar'^re. 

Between 7 and 8, Memoirs of the Duchess of Abrantes; 
and, perhaps, selections from Bourrienne, de Beausset, Fain, 
and others. 

And to add life to the whole period, the Erckmann-Chatrian 
novels ad libitum. 

For summary histories of the various European States which 
were brought into relations with the Revolution, the reader 
will find them generally well given in Alison's History of 
Europe. 

FINIS. 



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